Rightmove, Making All The Wrong Moves …

£100 to £140 a month as a baseline increase in the Rightmove charges per branch. If you do the mathematics is taking an average £120 x 12 = £1,440 year. If there are 18,500 branches that is £1,440 x 18,500 = 26.6M.

I am sure some corporates and larger agencies may not get hit with such large increases, but the 75% discount for four months in lockdown 1.0, thought to have cost Rightmove shareholders 30M, will soon see its ‘debt’ repaid and some.

In the years 2016 to 2019, Rightmove’s gross profit was 74% each of those years, and in each of those years its revenue increased significantly.

The only way your revenue rises if you have no new clients as you are at saturation point – annually increase fees to your clients. SaaS a repeatable model, does not cost a fraction of what agents are being charged, the mythical high cost of hosting 300 properties instead of 30, is just that.

Maybe ask your Rightmove rep the ‘true’ cost of hosting your inventory, bearing in mind that new portals allow a freemium model often for one or two years, why – it is cheap as chips.

Time for agents to get savvy and pay a fee based on ROI, and not on the need to see a 74% gross profit, the only ones doing ok here are the shareholders, which of course includes those in the c-suite of Rightmove itself. What are the gross profit margins of the client agents? And how are they being treated?

Andrew Stanton

CEO & Founder Proptech-PR. Proptech Real Estate Influencer, Executive Editor of Estate Agent Networking. Leading PR consultancy in Proptech & Real Estate.

You May Also Enjoy

Breaking News

Homebuyers face longer buying timelines

The latest research from Lyons Bowe suggests the homebuying process could become even slower in 2026: as the number of conveyancers operating across the UK is thought to have fallen by almost -13% while transaction volumes rise, placing further pressure on completion timelines. Lyons Bowe has analysed data on the number of active conveyancers in…
Read More
Breaking News

Breaking Property News 1/4/26

Daily bite-sized proptech and property news in partnership with Proptech-X.   Winning the AI Era: A Playbook for UK Estate Agencies The AI-Driven Rewiring of UK Estate Agency Thought Leadership by Andrew Stanton CEO Proptech-PR Real estate has historically been conservative, fragmented, and inefficient. A surge of startups, is introducing automation, data-driven decision-making, and better customer experiences. This…
Read More
Breaking News

What renters and landlords need to know ahead of major rental law changes

With just one month to go until the first phase of the Renters’ Rights Act comes into force, the leading professional body, Propertymark, is urging renters and landlords across England to understand how the changes could affect them. From 1 May 2026, the legislation will introduce some of the biggest changes to the private rented…
Read More
Estate Agent Talk

Tackling Empty Properties

A UK Perspective on Best Practice and Recommendations for Reform Propertymark, the UK’s leading professional body for property agents, has today published a comprehensive new position paper highlighting the urgent need for coordinated, practical and properly resourced action to bring long-term empty properties back into use. With over 359,000 homes sitting empty for more than…
Read More
Breaking News

Pet-friendly rentals plunge 39%

New research from Inventory Base reveals that the number of pet-friendly rental homes in England has fallen by -39% since the start of 2026, as landlords appear to be reducing the number of homes openly marketed as allowing pets ahead of the Renters’ Rights Act taking effect from 1st May. The Renters’ Rights Act (RRA)…
Read More
Breaking News

Latest Nationwide house price data showing a 2.2% increase

Industry reaction to Nationwide house price data showing UK annual house price growth picked up to 2.2% in March, from 1.0% in February. Nathan Emerson, CEO of Propertymark, comments: “An uplift in house prices will be welcomed by the market and suggests that buyer demand remains resilient despite ongoing economic headwinds. Improved sentiment, coupled with…
Read More