Rightmove agent leads down 35%, say OTM CEO

Ian Springett, the CEO of OnTheMarket, property search portal giant in the UK, has stated that Rightmove, a direct competitor, offers 35% fewer leads per £100 of fees than it did back in 2015.

But afterwards, Rightmove said it had deliberately chosen to reduce the number of leads sent to agents, back in 2016, choosing to prioritize quality over volume.

Yesterday, Springett said that OTM has already disrupted the “duopoly” of Zoopla and Rightmove and is on track with agent backing to be able to deliver a genuine alternative.

He claimed that OTM has “dampened down” Zoopla’s price increases and that leads from Rightmove have been falling.

Using Rightmove’s full-year results in 2015, Springett said that Rightmove had provided an average of 210 leads per UK residential office per month.

In 2016 this fell to 195, and in 2017 fell again to 178.

Springett said that in 2015, every £100 spent by agents with Rightmove generated an average of 27.9 leads.

He told delegates that in the first half of 2018 this figure had reduced to an average of 18.1 – a 35% fall. For that period, Rightmove’s average revenue per advertiser (ARPA) was £987 whilst its average costs per advertiser were around £247 – a 75% profit margin.

For Zoopla, its full-year results for 2015 revealed that its leads per UK residential advertiser per month were an average of 136 while its half-year results for 2018 showed this figure had reduced to an average of 92.

Zoopla’s most recently published average revenue per partner was £359.

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