Rightmove says it is untroubled by cooling off in the property market
The company said it is unlikely its costs will rise materially this year.
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Your support makes all the difference.Online real estate agent Rightmove does not expect to be significantly affected by a wave of uncertainty rippling through the property market which has forced some housebuilders to dramatically cut the number of homes they expect to sell.
The business said that its costs are unlikely to rise in a “material” way this year, and added that the amount of money it gets from each customer is expected to grow.
The number of customers who use the platform over the year is expected to be broadly similar to the second half of last year.
“While we remain alert to the ongoing economic uncertainty, Rightmove is not materially impacted by the property market cycle, other than in the most extreme circumstances,” the business said.
Chief executive Peter Brooks-Johnson, said: “The year’s changing housing market conditions demonstrated our customers’ resilience and ability to adapt and to continue to succeed.
“The softening from the Covid-induced frenetic market towards a more normal market earlier in the year was disrupted in the final few months by the unexpected rapid mortgage rate increases.
“The strength of our results is a reminder of how effective and integral our new and existing products and services are in helping our customers in both faster and slower markets.”
The confident statements come amid a cracking market. House prices are starting to fall, prompting housebuilding giants Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey to slash the number of homes they plan to build this year by around a third.
Rightmove said that revenue rose 9% to £333 million in 2022 and it made a pre-tax profit of £241 million, up 7% on the year before.
The business said that people spent 16.3 billion minutes on its platform in 2022 – or around 1.1 million days – down from 18.3 billion during the “frenetic” prior year.
Despite the drop since 2021 the figure is a third higher than its pre-pandemic record in 2019.
Mr Brooks-Johnson said: “Rightmove continues to be the place that people turn to and return to first, with an average of over 1.35bn minutes spent on our platform every month in 2022.
“The continuing love home movers have for Rightmove is testament to the team’s focus on providing an easy to use leading edge platform, enhanced with innovation which home movers want.”