Majority of agents don’t believe portal price hikes are justified with added value
New research from The Property DriveBuy reveals that the majority of UK estate agents think that the price hikes implemented by property portals such as Rightmove in recent years are unreasonably high, with most also believing they are unjustified when it comes to the value these portals have added to their proposition.
The survey of UK estate agents, commissioned by The Property Drive Buy, shows that three quarters of agents believe that the price hikes implemented in recent years by the leading property portals – such as Rightmove and Zoopla – are exorbitant.
Additional analysis by The PropertyDriveBuy shows just what agents have had to contend with. Since 2021, the number of advertisers on Rightmove – in other words, estate agents listing their properties on the portal – has increased by just 0.4%. However, the average revenue that the platform has received from each advertiser has risen by 28.2%, including a 6.5% increase in 2024 alone.
In 2021, the average monthly revenue per advertiser stood at £1,189. By 2024, this figure had reached £1,524.
When asked whether they think the portals have added sufficient value to justify such substantial price hikes, no agents expressed absolute certainty that the offerings have improved enough to match the increases.
Instead, 42% of agents said the portals’ offerings had improved ‘marginally’, while almost 60% (58%) said products and services have definitely not seen an adequate improvement to justify the increase seen in costs.
Despite this frustration, only 56% of agents have actively explored alternative ways of marketing their properties outside of the main online portals.
Among these, 43% have used social media, 26% have utilised leafleting and door drops, 17% have held open houses, and 14% have turned to traditional print advertising.
56% say the most successful of these alternatives has been social media, followed by leafleting (18%), print advertising (15%), and open houses (12%).
The good news is that a true portal alternative is now available in the UK market, with The Property DriveBuy revolutionising the house-hunting experience through its geo-location property search app.
It’s currently free for agents for a limited period so they can explore the alternative offering available to them, with no bank details or ongoing commitments required – a 100% genuine free trial.
A set subscription cost of just £199 per month, per agency, will be introduced but only once Property DriveBuy has built suitable traction with respect to lead generation.
Agents are already seeing great success with The Property DriveBuy, including Ashford & Moult in Nottinghamshire.
Tom Moult, Director of Ashford & Moult Estate Agent based in Calverton, Nottinghamshire
“As a new agency, it’s important to us that we not only deliver a personal and trusted service but also embrace technology that genuinely benefits our clients. I wanted to work with a company that was thinking about the future of the property industry and would enable us to do things differently as a new agency.
“As a society, we are becoming more reliant on technology, and we all want to access things far more easily rather than having to search for them. This new technology, along with the Property DriveBuy app, is the perfect example of how innovation can be integrated into everyday life, enabling buyers to connect with homes more easily and giving our sellers greater exposure in a way that feels modern, accessible and community-focused.”
Steve Foreman, Founder and CEO of The Property DriveBuy, commented:
“The major portals have become so ubiquitous with house hunting that they’ve now got a stranglehold on estate agents who understandably feel like they have no option but to be visible on those platforms.
This dominance has given the likes of Rightmove a dictatorial mindset in which they hike their fees year on year without making any genuine effort to innovate or offer greater value for money.
As such, the search algorithms they force buyers and renters to use are stuck in the past, despite the fact that they’re known to result in house hunters missing out on dream properties simply because they fall very slightly outside the tight search parameters that the portals insist on.
We are determined to address this issue and prove that there is another, more innovative way, to help buyers discover homes and sellers to attract buyers.
Of course, it’s reasonable to expect portal costs to increase gradually in line with inflation, but our promise is that we will never implement the outrageous double-digit fee increases seen by other portals and, our current price of £199 per month, per agency, will stay fixed for the next three years, at least.
We want to become the portal that agents rely on, but for the right reasons – a more cost effective way for agents to market their properties using revolutionary technology, with a transparent pricing structure.”
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