Last year, RightMove doubled its mortgage unit sales to £4.7 million as the property portal continues to view the division as a “strategic growth area”.
The company said in its annual statement that the division has introduced more than £24 billion in potential loans to its partners.
The digital sector allows consumers to obtain “almost instant” collateral in principle through their lender partners’ portal. Alternatively, clients can talk to one of their agents’ preferred brokers.
Last year was also the first year of key rental services. This is a digital end-to-end product for rental agencies, landlords and tenants, which is transferred to the rental agreement in five digital steps.
The service launched 31 agents at the end of 2023 and had grown into more than 500 agents by the end of last year.
Over the year, it adds the features of leasing managers and query managers to acquire and qualify potential tenants.
The group identified commercial property, mortgage and leasing services as its three strategic growth areas, contributing £23 to sales last year.
However, pre-tax profit fell 1% to £258.4 million, which remains a small part of the portal’s business as “real estate company partners have upgraded parcels, increased use of digital products and updated contracts”.
Group sales have grown 7% to £389.9 million starting a year ago.
The company’s total membership grew 1% to 19,047, while average revenue per advertiser rose by £93 to £1,524.
The time spent on its website has increased by 6% to a total of 16.4 billion minutes compared to 12 months ago.
The company said the Bank of England’s base rate fell to 4.5% in February, “starting to lower loan rates for autonomous and industry participants at lower loan rates”.
The business is expected to bring group sales between 8% and 10% in 2025.
“These are solid results for RightMove, emphasizing the resilience of its business model,” said Charlie Huggins, a wealth club manager at Quality Equity portfolio.
“Despite uncertainty in the housing market, the results in 2024 are consistent with expectations, the outlook is confident, and growth will strengthen in 2025.”
RightMove pointed out that it was the fourth most digital platform in the UK last year, second only to the BBC, digital publisher Reach and the government’s own website Gov.uk.
