REG-Rightmove Plc: Trading Statement

RightmoveAnnouncement

08/11/2024 07:15

8 November 2024

 

Rightmove plc

 

Trading Update

 

Looking ahead with confidence

 

Rightmove plc, the UK's number one property portal, provides the following
update on trading for the period from 1 July 2024.  Unless otherwise stated,
figures relate to the four-month period ending 31 October 2024. 

 

Market update

 

Looking across the segments that we serve, we see greater optimism among our
partners looking into 2025 than at this time last year.

 

Our latest leading property market data 1  (#_ftn1) shows a continuation of
the trends indicated at our interim results on 26 July 2024.  House price
growth remains positive, albeit subdued, and mortgage rates are stable with a
favourable outlook for further potential bank rate cuts.  

 

Property transaction flow is improving, supporting business growth for our
Estate Agency partners.  Rental price growth continues to moderate with an
average enquiries per available property of 15.

 

Our New Homes developer partners are encouraged by the government policy
support that has been announced, although new build activity remains softer
than the prior year.

 

 

Guidance update

 

We are in line to meet market expectations for revenue and adjusted underlying
operating profit for the year, and are tightening our 2024 guidance given at
the interim results in July as follows:

 
* Revenue of approximately £390m (within our previous guidance of 7-9%
growth)
* Reiterate guidance of adjusted underlying operating margin of 70%.  This
will be before one-off costs of approximately £10m 2  (#_ftn2)
* Membership numbers are expected to grow by around +1% on 2023 (within our
previous guidance of up to +2%), reflecting a slower-than-expected recovery in
New Homes developments
* Average Revenue Per Advertiser (ARPA) growth of +£85-£95 on 2023's
£1,431, higher than our previous guidance of +£75-£85, reflecting the
successful sales and migration to the Optimiser Edge top-end package for
Estate Agents, as well as product uptake across both Estate Agent and New
Homes partners.
 

We expect to see a modest acceleration in revenue growth in 2025 from the
full-year impact of Optimiser Edge uptake, product-led growth across our Core
business, and continued progress within our Strategic Growth Areas of
Commercial Property, Mortgages and Rental Services.

 

 

Current trading and outlook: looking ahead with confidence

 

Reinforcing our network effect by delivering consumer and partner value

 

Rightmove remains the place to which consumers turn first and return most -
representing over 80% of all consumer time spent on UK property portals. 3 
(#_ftn3)  Our cross-channel consumer marketing is focused on ensuring that we
are front of mind for UK home-movers: in H2, this has included our sponsorship
of `The Voice' on ITV1 and ITVX which reached over 14 million people, and the
next phase of our brand campaign across social, video, out-of-home and
Rightmove platforms which is expected to reach 95% of UK adults.  We also
increased our social media presence with an 89% increase in engagement during
the period. 4  (#_ftn4)  We continue to innovate at scale and pace to drive
engagement with our platform: within our Affordability product suite we
launched the Renovation Calculator 5  (#_ftn5) for consumers, with 20% of
users tracking a property since launch adding a renovation.

 

Lead generation remains strong, with 20% more leads sent to our resale and
dual partners in the period.  This delivers superior outcomes to our
partners, with Rightmove providing 73% of sales outcomes and 85% of lettings
outcomes in 2024 year-to-date. 6  (#_ftn6) 

 

Divisional update and outlook

 

Within our Core business, we have successfully executed on Rightmove's
longstanding approach to contract renewals, which are now complete for the
year and continue to deliver product-led ARPA growth. 

 

In Estate Agency, we expect growth in 2025 to be supported by the continued
migration from Optimiser 2020 to Optimiser Edge, as well as increased product
uptake and contract renewals.  We began to migrate partners to Optimiser Edge
in August, and now have over 3,000 branches on this top package.  We expect
the migration to be materially complete within the next 12 months.

 

Within New Homes, we are now starting to see slightly more developments on
site and expect ongoing growth during 2025.  ARPA remains strong as
developers continue to turn to our products for their marketing needs.

 

Our Strategic Growth Areas of Mortgages, Commercial Property, and Rental
Services continue to perform in line with our expectations.  Within
Mortgages, we have delivered >150% more leads to our lender and broker
partners year-on-year, and recently launched a remortgage product within Track
a Property, supporting the introduction of further leads to our broker
partners.  Our Commercial Real Estate team relaunched the site in September,
with a new Commercial landing page 7  (#_ftn7) and lead-generating product, as
well as media and partner outreach, all aimed at further strengthening our
leading position.  Within Rental Services, referencing volumes continue to
grow and are up 13% year-on-year.  Our digital end-to-end rental solution for
agents and landlords, Lead to Keys, has attracted over 140 new partners and
over 275 existing Rightmove partners which means we are on track to hit our
subscription targets for 2024.  

 

 

Johan Svanstrom, CEO of Rightmove, said:

 

"This has been another period of strong progress for Rightmove, and it's
pleasing to see our product development and sales delivery generating
increased uptake from consumers and partners.  As a result, we remain
confident in achieving meaningful strategic and financial growth in 2024.  We
see continued momentum building product depth across our platform - driving
revenue growth in the core business and within our strategic growth areas.
 We are excited to be the place consumers turn to first and return to most
when looking to buy, sell or rent a property in the UK.  We see a long runway
of opportunities, leveraging our superior platform and data scale to generate
increased value for all stakeholders."

 

 

 

Enquiries:   

Investor Relations Investor.Relations@rightmove.co.uk

Sodali & Co  rightmove@sodali.com

 

About Rightmove
* Rightmove has the UK's largest selection of properties for sale and to rent,
adds more listings than anyone else, and over 80% of all time spent on
property portals is on Rightmove.
* Rightmove's vision is to give everyone the belief that they can make their
move by giving people the best place to turn and return to for access to tools
and expertise to make it happen.
* People can search Rightmove for residential resale, new homes, rentals,
commercial property and overseas properties and use tools and information
including getting a Mortgage in Principle, checking local sold prices,
property valuations, market trends, maps and schools.
* Partners include the following key groups: estate agents, lettings agents,
new homes developers, rental operators, commercial property operators and
overseas property agents.
* Using the UK's largest housing datasets, we issue a number of regular
reports to track market indicators: our monthly House Price Index (established
2002), our quarterly Rental Trends Tracker (established 2015), a weekly
Mortgage Rates Tracker (established 2023), and a quarterly Commercial Insights
Tracker (established Q1 2024). Historical data is available on request.
* Founded in 2000, Rightmove listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2006 and
is a member of the FTSE 100 index.
 

 1  (#_ftnref1) House Price Index published on 21 October, for the period 8
September - 12 October; Rental Price Tracker published on 16 October for the
period 1 July - 30 September; Mortgage Tracker published on 6 October.

 2  (#_ftnref2) Reflects previously communicated costs related to the
investments in Coadjute and Homeviews, as well as costs incurred in relation
to the potential offer for Rightmove in September.

 3  (#_ftnref3) 83% in September, the most recent month available. Source:
Comscore MMX® Desktop only + Comscore Mobile Metrix® Mobile Web & App, Total
Audience, Custom-defined list of Rightmove, Zoopla, PrimeLocation and
OntheMarket platforms.

 4  (#_ftnref4) 1 July - 31 October 2024 vs 1 July - 31 October 2023, for
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok.  "Engagement" defined as reactions,
comments, shares, saves, link clicks and profile actions.

 5  (#_ftnref5) Renovation Calculator helps consumers to explore the added
value that existing or planned renovation works might have on a property: see
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/press-centre/rightmove-launches-new-renovation-calculator/

 6  (#_ftnref6) Sales outcomes source: Street (January - October 2024),
compared to all UK portals. Lettings outcomes source:  RLTS tenant survey,
>180,000 tenants (January - October 2024), compared to all UK portals. 
Question: "How did you find the property you are applying for?"

 7  (#_ftnref7) https://www.rightmove.co.uk/commercial-property



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