Rightmove PLC on Friday left its top and bottom line outlook for 2024 unchanged, but lowered its guidance for the average revenue per advertiser metric, amid a ‘recent change in customer mix’.
Rightmove shares were down 4.7% to 545.92 pence each in London on Friday morning.
The London-based online estate agency platform said it expects 2024 to be a ‘better year for the UK property market’ than last year was.
Rightmove said sales agreed between January and April were 17% higher on-year, with both home buyers and sellers ‘increasingly looking to transact’. However, it cautioned that robust mortgage are still weighing on affordability for the average buyer.
Rightmove said estate agency net memberships have risen by around 250 in the first four months of the year.
The company added: ‘Our digital end-to-end solution, Lead to Keys, attracted over 70 new partners to Rightmove and over 170 existing partners added the product to their subscription. Independent agent subscriptions to Optimiser Edge now exceed 700, ahead of our expectations when setting the plan for 2024. Our current expectation is that agent branches will increase by up to 2% during 2024 relative to 2023, ahead of our expectations earlier in the year.’
Lead to Keys is a platform that allows users to advertise their properties, manage enquiries, go through the referencing process and manage tenancies. The Optimiser Edge package for estate agents allows users to do branded advertising on Rightmove’s ‘most viewed page’ in searches.
Rightmove said the rise in memberships is ‘positive for revenue and profit’, though it noted that lettings-only agents usually have a lower average revenue per advertiser.
Its new homes offering has seen 90 new developments added to its Access, entry-level package, tailored for housing associations. Similar to the increase in memberships, this is positive for revenue and profit, but has a lower ARPA.
Rightmove said that its ARPA growth for the first four months of the year would have been in line with guidance, were it not for a ‘recent change in customer mix’.
As a result, ARPA for 2024 is expected to grow in the £75 to £85 range, its guidance lowered from £100-£110.
Its outlook for revenue growth is unchanged at the 7% to 9% range. Its underlying operating margin guidance is unchanged at 70%, down from 2023’s 73%. Revenue in 2023 amounted to £364.3 million.
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