The Rightmove News Just Keeps Coming

• Big portals could be free to agents and still make money - Rob Sargent

• Full-time team of 8 set up to manage the Say No To Rightmove campaign

• 10% of agents already left and 71% prepared to leave if no extension of 75% fee suspension forthcoming according to survey

• Petition launched to deny Rightmove government bailout money

News about the embattled British portal keeps coming in despite stasis in the housing market. According to a survey of agents carried out by the Say No To Rightmove campaign, 10% of agents surveyed have already given notice with Rightmove and over 70% are willing to do the same if Rightmove does not extend the 75% fee suspension offer currently in effect due to economic restrictions.

Interestingly, in an interview yesterday with investment bank Jefferies, figurehead of the Say No To Rightmove movement, Rob Sargent claimed that big UK portals could make money from the data they own without even charging agents. 

In related news, lettings agent Kathleen McCallum has started a petition to deny Rightmove government bailout money after the portal company said it would apply for the government loan facility being made available to UK corporations. The Scottish agent was quoted as saying that

"The government should do what Rightmove did to small business and say NO to helping them."

As pressure mounts from its inventory suppliers and with its share price not recovering as quickly as some other portals’, we can’t guarantee that Rightmove won’t dominate the news on the pages on Online Marketplaces for a while longer.