EYE NEWSFLASH: Rightmove revenues up 7% as estate agency subscribers grow

Rightmove has just unveiled its audited results for the year ended 31 December 2024. 

It posted annual results revealing a 7% rise in revenues to £389.9m and underlying operating profit 4% higher at £273.9m.

Average revenue per advertiser rose £93 to £1524 per month, with total membership up 1% to 19,047 after the number of estate agency branches rose 2% and new homes developments fell 1%.

Rightmove says that its platform accounted for over 80% of all consumer time spent on UK property portals – 16.4bn minutes in 2024 (2023:15.4bn). 

In 2025, Rightmove said it expects revenue growth of 8-10% as it benefits from uptake of its top-end packages.

The group has forecast 1% growth in membership and a rise in average revenue per advertiser of £95 – £105 across estate agency and new homes developers.

Average revenue per advertiser (ARPA) rose £93 to £1,524 per month (2023: £1,431). Estate agency ARPA was £1,440, increasing by 6% (2023: £1,356) and new homes developers’ ARPA of £1,987 increased by 9% (2023: £1,825). 

Total membership increased by 1% to 19,047 (2023: 18,785), with estate agency branches up 285/2% and new homes developments down 23/1% since the start of 2024.  Average total membership across the year was flat with estate agency up 1%/100, offset by new homes developments down 4%.  

The company also identified strategic growth areas of commercial property, mortgages, and rental services delivering operationally and financially – up 27% year-on-year – with significant runways for growth. 

Underlying operating profit was up 4%, with underlying operating profit margin of 70%, in line with guidance. Operating profit down 1% due to the impact of one-off transaction-related charges of £9.2m. 

Final dividend for 2024 up 7% to 6.1p per ordinary share (2023: 5.7p). Total dividend for 2024 up 5% to 9.8p (2023: 9.3p).

The company said there was £181.7m of surplus cash returned to shareholders through share buybacks and dividends during 2024 (2023: £201.7m).

Cash and cash equivalents, including money market deposits, at the end of the year of £41.3m (31 December 2023: £38.8m).

Meanwhile, headcount is up 14% to just under 900 employees – 60% of new recruits were in technology roles.

Chief executive Johan Svanstrom said: “We delivered strong results, demonstrating yet again the resilience of Rightmove’s business model. Consumers visited the Rightmove platform 2.3 billion times in 2024, and with the UK’s largest selection of properties for sale and to rent they spent a combined 16.4 billion minutes searching and using our expanding set of valuable tools.

 “We’re continuing to invest in technology and products to make the platform even more useful and effective for both partners and consumers. 24 AI-enabled teams of software engineers delivered over 5,000 releases, features and enhancements in 2024.

 “We have a clear strategy to further digitise the home moving market, powered by the UK’s largest set of property data and insights.  There is a long runway of opportunity to both broaden and deepen Rightmove’s services on one connected platform, and our team is continuing to drive that momentum in 2025.”

Rightmove said it was the fourth-busiest UK-based digital platform in 2024, behind the BBC, digital publisher Reach and the government’s website.

Other highlights announced by Rightmove this morning:

Operational highlights

 Consumer:

+ Sustained traffic growth, with a total of 16.4 billion minutes spent on the platform in the year, up 6% (2023: 15.4 billion)

+ Over 80% of traffic was direct and organic, while Rightmove also invested in engaging all generations through channels including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok, across which engagement increased by 39% year-on-year

Partner:

+ Continued growth in the uptake of their top packages: “Optimiser Edge” for estate agents, with 31% of independent agents subscribing (December 2023: 8%); and “Advanced” for new homes developers, with 60% of developers subscribing (December 2023: 53%)

+ Retention of existing partners was 90%, the second-highest in the last 10 years (2023: 89%)

+ Of all leads delivered by portals, Rightmove delivered over 7 out of 10 vendor instructions and over 8 out of 10 lettings instructions

Strategic Growth Areas:

+ Commercial Property delivered two major interface changes, attracted over 150 more partners, and achieved over 60% of online consumer time.

+ Rental Services saw over 500 partners sign up to its end-to-end digital solution, Lead to Keys, of which one-third were new partners to Rightmove, while referencing and ancillary revenue grew by 12% 

+ Financial Services (“Mortgages”) more than doubled its revenues year-on-year to £4.7m (2023: £2.2m), introducing over £24bn of potential lending to its partners 

+ Together, these three areas contributed £23m in revenue, and 20% of Group revenue growth

Innovation:

+ Rightmove says its product teams delivered more than 5,000 releases during the year, including the increasing use of AI, while maintaining 99.99% site uptime and a 4.8 app rating 

+ Examples of new products for partners included a new Commercial property brochure feature; a remortgage proposition; company reports for multi-branch estate agencies; and native search adverts for rental operators; while Premium Price Guide, Opportunity Manager and Microsites were all enhanced 

+ Examples of features for consumers included testing an AI-driven tool for local area information; launch of My Places to save favourite places and calculate journey times; the introduction of the Renovation Calculator; enhanced EPC functionality on listed properties; and new comparison features to assess affordability with different mortgage providers

Current end-market trends:  

Property end-market trends in the early months of 2025 are supportive for our partners’ businesses.  The Bank of England cut the base rate to 4.5% on 6 February 2025, the lowest level since June 2023, which is beginning to feed through to lower lending rates for homemovers and industry participants.  In resale, sales agreed have been ahead of 2019 levels since August 2024, while completions are approaching 2019 levels, supporting pipelines and agent confidence.  Within the lettings sub-market, supply and demand are rebalancing slightly, although enquiries per available property remain above pre-Covid levels.  For new homes developers, there has been a steady improvement in the number of developments coming to market through the second half of 2024 and into 2025.

Outlook:  

Rightmove says its financial performance in 2024 reflected the strength of its platform, with powerful data and network effects, and a proven ability to grow profits and cashflows in all market conditions.

In 2025, the property portal will continue to build a larger, more diversified, digital Rightmove ecosystem in line with its wider strategy. Rightmove expect revenue growth of 8-10%, building on its progress in 2024 and benefiting from: the full-year impact of Optimiser Edge uptake; further product-led growth across our core business; and continued progress within our Strategic Growth Areas of Commercial Property, Mortgages and Rental Services.  

As the firm continues to invest in innovation for its consumers and partners, and in accelerating our Strategic Growth Areas, they expect an underlying operating margin of 70%.

The strength of its business model, clear strategy, and its focus on innovation underpin the Board’s confidence in Rightmove’s outlook for 2025 and beyond.