Shaun Adams: Rightmove fees up 18% annually?!
Following lively discussions on the Estate Agency Facebook group, we asked Shaun Adams to share some viewpoints on the gossip spreading towards the 18% price increase of Rightmove:
Q: Please give us a brief introduction to yourself and your history in the property industry.
My name is Shaun Adams, and I started in this industry in 1991. In 2004, I opened my own estate agency with Richard Cooper. Sadly, he passed away.
Q: It seems to be a painful relationship that many estate agents have with Rightmove, much like a love-hate acquaintance.
I love this industry but really want to revolutionise it. I’ve visited America and Australia to study how they handle property transactions, and I’m a firm believer in getting as many sellers as possible to instruct their conveyancer the same day they instruct us. Ideally, this should happen before viewings commence, with a contract pack ready to answer all the basic enquiries. This ensures potential buyers have the information they need upfront and that we comply fully with material information requirements.
I’m also a strong advocate for reservation agreements. In most of our sales, both the seller and buyer enter into a reservation agreement at the time of agreeing on the sale, which legally locks them in and provides far more security.
Q: Rightmove is a household name in the minds of many consumers across the UK, is this the power that they lean on to increase their prices or are there improved services which merit their increasing fees? Does anything from Rightmove justify this recent 18% increase?
Rightmove is a great portal, but with 86% of the market going to them, agents feel forced to use their services—and Rightmove knows it. That’s why they impose extortionate fee increases of 18% per year, which is daylight robbery. Their service levels don’t increase by 18%, meaning agents receive less value for money each year. This is why I believe there’s a strong case for the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to investigate their stranglehold on the market. If an agent threatens to leave, Rightmove warns that their return fees will be significantly higher—essentially locking agents in.
Q: Are Rightmove doing enough to communicate with their customers (estate & letting agents). Do they price their services accordingly or is it simply charging more and more until the bubble bursts?
I’ve been told that agents should simply increase their fees to cover Rightmove’s rising costs, but why should our clients have to pay extra just to boost Rightmove’s shareholder profits for the same service? It’s completely unfair on them.
Q: Have estate and letting agents the same fragile relationship with the likes of Zoopla or OnTheMarket?
I’ve also heard that Zoopla and OnTheMarket are trying to aggressively raise their fees. We’ve tested both in the past, but they’ve been much weaker, so we moved away from them.
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