In the week that Rightmove is due to announce its interim results, Rob Sargent, leader of the Say No To Rightmove campaign, calls on the portal to use the occasion to also announce more help for agents.
Over the last couple of weeks, a growing number of our Say No To Rightmove supporters have reached out and shared their frustration at the lack of any longer-term mission statement from Rightmove or their board.
Whilst the rank and file of UK Estate Agents are rapidly remodelling their businesses, I still remain optimistic that Rightmove have equally been using this time to innovate and reconnect with their largely disenfranchised client base.
Our industry was effectively ‘locked down’ by the Government’s social distancing measures from 26th March. The restrictions were eased in England on 13th May allowing property marketing activity to recommence.
For many agency principals in England, the lock-down period may seem a distant memory as we have risen to the challenge of re-opening our businesses, bringing back our staff and, in some cases, dealing with a new boom in transactions. The pre-COVID demand for properties, which could not be fulfilled during those seven weeks, is now supporting a strong recovery in transaction levels.
We should, though, be mindful that January to June residential sales levels in 2020 were some 25% down when compared with the same period in 2019. June 2020 transactions were some 36% lower than for 2019.
Such a dramatic fall in activity will have wiped out real profits and put severe and continuing financial pressure on many agent firms only alleviated by Government support, deferment of debt, tax and VAT. The Government is withdrawing furlough support and job losses across large parts of the economy are said to be inevitable, though I remain optimistic that net job losses will be better than predicted by many analysts.
It therefore seems inevitable that recessionary effects will bite however V-shaped they turn out to be. The Chancellor has consequently felt it necessary to provide a substantial time-limited stimulus by increasing the SDLT nil rate band to properties up to £500,000 from 8th July.
In short, our industry has suffered, we are not out of the woods and we could experience a material reversal in the coming months. Against this backdrop, we should expect suppliers to our businesses to be doing all they can to support us through this difficult period, especially where we have contributed heavily to their revenue and profits over many years.
At the end of this week, Rightmove will announce its financial results for the first half of 2020. The numbers will reveal the degree to which it has shared the pain which all its customers have felt over recent months. We can also expect some well-informed forecasts from investment analysts showing their expectations of Rightmove profits for the full year 2020.
Over recent years, Rightmove has consistently enjoyed profit margins of 75% or more. These profits flow directly from the high and relentlessly increasing fees it charges for displaying its customers’ listings on its portal.
The 75% fees discount it has provided since April should, other things being equal, have left it trading at breakeven. It may have reduced costs (and, therefore, the service it has provided) which would have improved its financial position. Unless something changes, from 1st August the discount will fall to 60%, suggesting that Rightmove will immediately return to profitability. Its profitability will increase again for September when the discount falls to 40% and be fully restored from 1st October.
We at Say No To Rightmove believe Rightmove should be doing much more to help its customers through the uncertain times ahead. Its results announcement would be an opportune time for it to show that it has learnt from its experience in March when it was forced to revise its initial ‘plans to help support’ its customers. Say No To Rightmove is an opportunity to align with the estate agency industry and the clients who deliver the stock that attracts the public.
In the 18 months from June 2018 to December 2019, Rightmove’s agent office numbers fell by 1,238 to 16,347 (agent offices and new home developments). We expect to see it report a further fall in the half-year to June 2020. Whilst part of these falls are due to agents exiting the market, we know that many who have left are trading perfectly well without a Rightmove listing.
Rightmove is no longer the only game in town. It no longer carries ‘whole of market’ listings and the other major portals are catching up fast. The others also appear to be much more agent-friendly in their approach.
We look forward to seeing Rightmove’s statement and hope and believe they will do the right thing: investing in technology to aid and stimulate property transactions, broadening of the source of their revenue streams, and reversing the excessive leveraging of UK estate agency businesses.
Rob Sargent, Say No To Rightmove.
Comments (26)
The “Say no to Rightmove” group appears to be a campaign in name only. Saying no needs action and not just a title! RM have been playing bully boy tactics with agents for 20 years so the inaction of this Rob’s group has had no affect. In fact the contrary is probably true in that RM see no threat from it at all. And why should they? Agents have spent these 20 years telling everyone who would listen that RM was/is the portal of choice, to the point where perversely there was no choice. We’ve bigged it up for so long it’s now a noose that’s choking agents to death. So please decide what you’re saying no to Righmove about and do something about it because if you don’t the status quo will continue. There is an option in OTM, despite its imperfections, but everyone moaning about RM and doing nothing is frankly getting boring and is doing my head in! There must be other things to moan about?
Rightmove are only being emboldened by the lack of real commitment to any of these campaigns. Pretty soon, however, a large number of agents will be forced off by disintegrating cash flows and earnings. Leave now with a plan and get ahead of those oblivious to future events.
Right at the beginning of this I invited RM directly to offer a temporary fee reduction which would have done them the world of good PR wise……they ignored my request and presumably many others, until the backlash flared and they panicked.
It was very welcome and agents have actually benefited financially from RM; and HM Government tremendously over recent weeks.
RM are not the bank of agents, they have no need to be.
The service they offer is very poor, but the exposure for agents’ properties is excellent; although the exposure that agents got for their brand from the newspapers years ago was much much better than RM.
They have a lot of problems, but sadly they will endure.
Their CEO needs to take a long hard look in the mirror and decide what is most important to him. I suspect when he looks up from counting his cash he really won’t care too much for these campaigns………I hope I am proved wrong.
Their CEO initially referred to Covid as ‘ a blip, a bit like Xmas’ as I recall. Don’t hold out much hope of them doing anything other than returning to normal service at the earliest opportunity which will mean bigger bills for those that remain to cover the lost income from those of us who have already left.
The long standing issue with rightmove is pricing. Big corporates who were cofounders pay very little for huge stock and independents listing less than 10 per month pay 4 times more. That’s not fair and as with any supplier, a business owner can decide not to use that supplier any more.
What RM has is a pretty basic website and it has had to spend a lot on advertising to get eyeballs on it. Some of that spend has been on all the stuff they sent to us!
We’ve met a couple of people in the pat few years who have applied for tech side jobs at RM and they say it’s not an exciting-looking business and the only thing they are worried about is Facebook. One of those people is now a client and not worried that we aren’t listing on RM.
What is all this fuss about, perpetuated by people playing at being businessmen. Like absolutely any form of marketing, LOOK AT YOUR ROI. Its is that simple, what is your cost per lead? what is your cost per acquisition of a seller or landlord? If RMs return is as good as others then why is everyone complaining?? If it is poor and doesn’t work bin it and spend your marketing dollars on something that does? Simples
You know so little about the situation, nothing to do with ROI, KPI or any other measure, it’s all about FOMO. Rightmove continues to exist solely on the basis that most agents fear losing business to other agents who stay on this archaic site. End of.
The more new portals that come into being just make RM more powerful. Agents need to support one of alternatives Z or OTM or we will always have have the dominant RM Portal plus a load of “tiddlers”. I dont see Agents ever doing anything seriously joined up as there is a lack of trust in the industry between competitors and that will never change IMO-plus the discounts to the larger players give them an an advantage they wont want to lose.
Rightmove has given a 75% discount, reducing soon to 60%. If you are still unhappy then vote with your feet and don’t use them – there are other portals available.
The very existence of your movement suggests they are providing something that you can’t do without. The discounts they have offered seem very fair, under the circumstances… Shut up or ship out would be my response.
Does anyone know how many agent branches are still on Rightmove?
Above article says
“In the 18 months from June 2018 to December 2019, Rightmove’s agent office numbers fell by 1,238 to 16,347 (agent offices and new home developments).”
Rightmove Trading Statement 23/6/20 says
“Overall membership at 31 May of 19,054 is down 3.8% since the end of 2019. This decline is made up of 620 fewer agency branches, together with a reduction of 135 New Homes developments.”
As the Trading statement says – they have lost 620 EA branches to 31st May.
The y/end number of 19809 is made up of 16347 EA branches plus 3462 NHD.
So, the number of EA branches at 31st May is 15727.
N.B They lost 1,000 EA branches in 2019 and are on track to beat that in 2020.
Thanks for that.
So in the piece “16,347 (agent offices and new home developments).” should read “16,347 (agent offices)” then.
Im interested for my own comparison purposes with OTM and Zoopla…
Yes – they have not inc. the 3462 NHD.
We will find out this week whether they have dipped below 15600 EA offices at the end June.
SO WHAT if they have, what does it matter to you unless you are a shareholder in RM? Are you??
I was responding to MarkJ 🙂
No, I sold my shares a long time ago.
It matters to a lot of posters on here because if RM continue to lose EA offices at the current rate then remaining agents will have to foot the bill – at least £100pcm per branch just for RM to stand still.
Add on their usual 10% annual hike and most agents will be looking at paying an EXTRA £200 pcm very soon. 😮
Ostrich17 ….”at least £100pcm per branch ” your reminiscing there!
Sorry, an EXTRA £100pcm to cover lost revenue of leavers !!
Whoever thinks that RM is the force it once was is deluded. We used to spend on FA banners, premium displays etc. We know that our own social media delivers far better results and guess what, it also promotes our brand and drives customers to our own website. We remain on RM but on the essentials package, this position is being continuously reviewed as more challengers come to the market.
Rob Sargent..
what have you done to aid you staff and the clients you supply a service to?
Bet you didn’t discount any of your services by any percentage at all!
You just come across as GREEDY and frankly foolish… you try and lead an exodus without leaving yourself.
I fail to see why any business should listen to you… your integrity is through the floor and we all see right through you and your self serving ways…
The real agents are busy making the very most out of the Market and all aid given is accepted with gratitude!
We have had a record breaking return to the market and have sold more than we ever have going back 12 years.
I used to pay £8,000 a month to the local papers so I see Rightmove as a great return…
And so do most agents in my town.
Shame on you!
Sargent has never said he is leading an exodus. Do try and keep up.
To be fair to Rob and any other business owner.
He and the rest of us work on ‘No Sale, No Fee’ if they dont move they dont pay. We dont charge a seller £X per month to list a proper, conduct viewings etc.
Also he does not have a monopoly on his industry. Sellers can look elsewhere.
RM, take almost 2k per month with some agencies having less than a dozen properties for sale. They may not get any leads. They feel forced to use RM as lets face it they are a monopoly.
Yet another pro-RM first time poster.
“We have had a record breaking return to the market and have sold more than we ever have going back 12 years.”
That’s a very short sighted view if you think that this period of everyone rushing to buy and sell is going to be anything other than very short term. Have you been watching the news, worldwide?
Rightmove results coming on Friday for the 6 months to the end of June 2020…
Id be very surprised if they wont have still made a profit for the period.
In a Trading Statement on 23/6/2020 Rightmove disclosed:-
1/ From 6/4/20 they had furloughed 1/3 of their staff and were topping up to 90%
2/ Senior management had taken a voluntary 20% pay cut til 31/7/20
3/ They have deferred a VAT bill of £12m
4/ The plan was to get all staff back by 31/7/20.
Im sure 75% Net Profit would have allowed them to top up to the 100% …..classy.
Come on Rightmove, listen to your customers! Been waiting a week now for them to come back to me with the answer to a simple account question!
Simple pricing without any smoke and mirrors is all I want based on size of agency.
Rightmove made redundancies last week – didn’t see any mention of them in the property press.
I think it’s using the mask of Covid to suggest trading difficulties when the reality is they are consolidating and moving to increased AI.
Thank you Rob for the campaign, I’m not an active member in anyway of it but good you have a broad perspective of the industry.