Agents enraged over Rightmove putting up their subscriptions

Rightmove, a property portal allowing home hunters to find details of properties to buy or rent in the UK, has sent out correspondence to agents, letting them know that their subscriptions are about to rise.

One agent, who will see their monthly cost before VAT rise from £725 to £865, said: “Rightmove will now cost my business £12,456 a year including VAT, which is the equivalent to our fee income from eight property sales.”

The agent said the rise will mean that the business will be paying more to Rightmove than the combined costs of Zoopla, PrimeLocation, OnTheMarket, its own website, back-office software and the office rent.

The agent said: “How dare they do this to us in a tough market?”

Another agent receiving yesterday’s letter described it as the “annual slap in the face from Rightmove”.

Rightmove plc is a United Kingdom-based company, which operates as a property portal. The Company's principal business is the operation of the rightmove.co.uk Website. The Company's Website and mobile platforms provide online property search. The Company's segments include Agency, New Homes and Other. The Agency segment provides resale and lettings property advertising services.

The New Homes segment provides property advertising services to new home developers and housing associations on www.rightmove.co.uk. The Other segment consists of overseas and commercial property advertising services and non-property advertising services, which include its third-party and consumer services, as well as data and valuation services. The Company offers its services through estate agents, lettings agents, new homes developers and overseas homes agents offering properties outside the United Kingdom but interested in advertising to the United Kingdom-based home hunters.

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