Rightmove Confirms OpenRent Termination, Predicts 3% Membership Decline

Rightmove has issued a statement to the markets confirming that negotiations for OpenRent to continue to list with the portal have broken down and will see membership numbers decline year-on-year as a result.

OpenRent, the UK's largest specialised lettings portal, specifically mentioned Rightmove as one of its advertising partners as recently as July but news broke last week that Rightmove had mysteriously disappeared from its list of marketing options.

Rightmove originally took the "no comment" approach but now the UK's largest real estate portal has confirmed that the agreement with OpenRent will terminate on 1 September 2024.

The statement said:

[Rightmove's] contract with OpenRent will terminate with effect from 1 September 2024, as conditions for OpenRent’s ongoing Rightmove membership could not be agreed.

OpenRent’s landlord customers will therefore lose access to the UK’s largest property-seeking audience.

OpenRent is classified as an online lettings agent within Rightmove’s Estate Agency (Lettings) sub-segment and represents approximately 700 branch equivalents, with less than 8% of Rightmove’s lettings listings in July 2024. As has been seen recently, market dynamics – within lettings in particular – are fluid. While we remain confident of delivering revenue and margin in line with the guidance above, the precise mix of membership and ARPA may vary. Our current estimate is that membership will decline by up to 3% year-on-year, with a year-on-year increase in ARPA of £90-£100.

The portal recently posted its half-year financial results for 2024, recording typically strong profit growth (7% year-on-year) with revenues of £192.1 million for the period.