Rightmove Half Year Report: Revenues up 10% YoY to £179.5M

Rightmove, the UK's number one portal, today announced its unaudited results for the six months ended 30 June 2023.

Highlights include:

• Revenues of £179.5M, up 10% YoY
• Operating profit of £129.5M, up 7% YoY
• ARPA of £1,411, up 9% YoY
• Full-year performance expected to match previous forecasts.
• Cash and cash equivalents of £43.2m
• Earnings per share steady at 12.1p (11.7p in the same period last year)

Membership numbers—19,116, up 1% YoY—held steady, while average time on Rightmove's website dipped slightly to 1.4 billion minutes per month (from 1.5 billion last year). Circa 35% of agents are on Rightmove's top-tier Optimiser Package, while vendor-led products including Rightmove Discover and Local Valuation Alert were the fastest-growing products in the first half of the year.

Meanwhile, other business units—including commercial real estate, data services and mortgages— now represent 10% of revenues, up 11% YoY. Commercial real estate revenues grew by 14% YoY, while the Mortgage segment grew exponentially by 150% due to its infancy as a product offering.

The company also highlighted an increased interest in its Mortgage in Principle journey, presumably due to rising interest rates and mortgage repayments in the UK.

Johan Svanstron, Chief Executive Officer at Rightmove, said:

"This has been another period of strong financial and strategic progress for Rightmove. These results clearly illustrate that Rightmove continues to be the property portal that consumers turn to first and engage with the most, and that our customers continue to use our innovative products and services to support their businesses in both slower and faster housing markets. Our performance against the backdrop of a challenging interest rate environment demonstrates yet again that Rightmove isn’t materially impacted by the property cycle.

"I have been very impressed by what I have seen in my first five months as Rightmove’s CEO and would like to extend my thanks to the team for delivering so strongly. This is a business which has performed consistently well over an extended time-period, and I am excited by the growth opportunities that I see over the long term in the wider UK property market.

"From here, our aim is to expand our platform, our products and our data, for both customers and consumers, to further digitise the sector, both in our core business and in newer growth areas. We also want to play an active role in facilitating the much-needed green transition of the real estate market, leveraging our vast pool of data and insight to do so."

Rightmove is one of the world's most powerful portals and deals almost exclusively in increased revenues and profits quarter-to-quarter, year-to-year. It's no exception H1 2023, with double-digit revenue growth for the UK giant. To put this into context, Average Revenue Per Advertiser (ARPA) hit £1,411—in 2006, it was just £183. it's a trend that dominates the discourse around Rightmove—is it too profitable?

Finally, a Director Declaration made today announced that Rightmove's CFO Alison Dolan will be appointed to the Audit Committee of Pearson plc in August, and to its Remuneration Committee in April 2024.