Rightmove says sector has "shaken off" pandemic challenges in spite of 30% revenue drop

A UK property website has reported that its revenue has dropped by nearly 30 per cent across the past year.

Rightmove, which is an online real estate portal and property site, saw revenues fall by 29 per cent in the past year, dropping from £289.3m to £205.7m.

The company said that the decrease was largely due to the discount it offered customers between April and September 2020, and that the market has mostly “shaken off” pandemic-related challenges.

It also said that it has had a positive start to 2021, with its busiest ever January site traffic.

Peter Brooks-Johnson, CEO of Rightmove, commented: “All of our lives were upended in 2020. Looking back at how our teams dealt with a multitude of challenges and adapted to help our customers respond to new regulations, becoming a key information hub and responding with accelerated innovation to the record home hunting activity that followed, makes me immensely proud.

“I’m also extremely impressed by the incredible resilience and adaptability of our customers, and I’d like to thank them for their support.

“In a year when we stayed in our homes more than ever before, people continued to turn to Rightmove for their next move and for real-time information, helping us to extend our lead in the market.

“The record traffic and enquiries that followed the reopening of the market led to us sending 51 million property leads to our customers. Strong activity has continued into 2021 and we recorded our busiest ever January for traffic.

“Digital solutions emerged as even more important to our customers as they navigated the different restrictions and invested in our tools to help them handle the record interest in property from home hunters.

“We remain mindful that 2021 may bring further Covid-related challenges, but we will continue to deliver our strategy to help make home moving easier, delivering the best solutions to our customers and the most engaging experience for our users.”