Rightmove up after record year

Property website Rightmove enjoyed a record year, with pre-tax profit increasing by £14 million to £97 million for the year ended 31 December 2013 and revenue rising 17% to £140 million.

The British love of residential property is reflected in the site now being one of the top ten busiest UK websites, with page hits soaring 27% to 14 billion, and enquiries from home hunters increasing 70% from over 21 million to 36 million in the same period. Average revenue per advertiser rose in the year reflecting a 31% increase in take-up of advertising products and also increases in membership fees.

Chief executive Nick McKittrick said the company was experiencing an encouraging start to the year, with it's busiest ever January. He said that research showed that home hunters see it as the most up-to-date UK property site on the internet, and to drive home this advantage it now offers customers newly marketed properties in real-time via their CRM system, and instant property alerts will be launched next.

The site recently added broadband speeds and Ofsted reports for local schools for every property, and has enlarged its data quality team in 2013 to keep abreast of removing out of date properties from display.

Rightmove, along with rival Zoopla, owned by Daily Mail & General Trust, is facing the threat of a new online portal, Agents Mutual, set up by some big estate agents such as Savills, Knight Frank and Strutt & Parker. Furthermore, the new house-hunting resource, which is expected to go live in January 2015, will stipulate that agents cannot advertise their properties on more than one of the other big websites.

Agents Mutual has raised more than £6 million in seed capital from its early members and is now allowing other agents to join without contributing to the funding.

However, Rightmove has developed critical mass amongst the small agencies that make up the bulk of the market and account for the less expensive properties which are in the shortest supply. In particular, government incentives for first-time buyers support the part of the market Rightmove dominates.

Zoopla is expected to float this year which could see a marketing push around the rival site that might also challenge Rightmove's position.

The final dividend is 17.0p (2012: 14.0p) making a total dividend of 28.0p for the year. Rightmove's shares rose 4.4% to 2741p, against a 52-week low of 1723p.