Revenue growth per agent hits record levels for Rightmove

Rightmove’s average revenue per agent has reached record levels as firms continue to spend more on the portal’s services.

The property website revealed in its half-year report this morning that revenue was up 9% annually to £12.8m and operating profit rose 6% to £121.3m.

Its average revenue per advertiser (ARPA) figure was up 11% annually to £1,290 per month.

Broken down by user, Rightmove posted record agency ARPA growth, up £132 or 12% to £1,262, while new homes ARPA growth was up 9% to £1,446 per development per month.

The ARPA figure is calculated as revenue from advertisers in a given month divided by the total number of advertisers during the month, measured as a monthly average over the six-month period.

Agency revenue increased overall by £12.6m year-on-year to £122.2m, according to the update.

Rightmove said it now has 16,116 agency branch customers and 2,818 new homes developments.

It said it has seen the highest net growth in sales agent branches since June 2016, offset by a reduction in lettings-only branches.

There has also been a record number of organic upgrades to its premium Optimiser 2020 package and successful migration of Optimiser 2015 customers to new packages, with 34% of independent agents now subscribing to Optimiser, up from 31% in June 2021.

Peter Brooks-Johnson, chief executive of Rightmove, said: "Our success during the first half of the year demonstrated the ongoing resilience of our customer base and the continuing love for and trust in our brand.

"Despite the housing market cooling slightly, activity on our platform was significantly higher than in the pre-pandemic market of 2019, with home-hunters using Rightmove for 1.5 billion minutes every month.

“Our continuous improvements and innovation have helped to increase engagement from home-hunters in tools such as sold prices, along with further investment from agents and developers as they continue to believe in the effectiveness of our digital products and tools to help them run and grow their businesses.

"I'm excited by our recent developments to make the process of renting a property easier for tenants and agents. The new lead-to-keys workflow will give tenants the ability to search, view, secure and contract on a property, all from their mobile phones. I hope that this will alleviate some of the stress in this very competitive rental market."

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article/RMV/half-year-results-2022/15561805