NEWSFLASH: Rightmove and OpenRent fail to agree terms

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Rightmove confirmed this morning that negotiations with online letting agency OpenRent to continue listing on its portal have concluded.

A statement to the market said:

Rightmove plc, the UK’s largest property portal, has announced that its contract with OpenRent will come to an end on 1 September 2024 after the two companies were unable to agree the terms of OpenRent’s continued Rightmove membership.

Rightmove reiterates its revenue and margin guidance for 2024. Excluding one-off acquisition costs and the investment in Coadjute, it continues to forecast revenue growth of 7-9% and an underlying operating margin of 70%, both in line with market expectations.

OpenRent is classed as an online letting agency within Rightmove’s Estate Agents (Renting) sub-segment and accounts for the equivalent of approximately 700 branches and just under 8% of Rightmove’s rental property listings in July 2024. As has been seen recently, market trends (particularly renting) are in flux. We are confident that we will achieve revenues and margins in line with the guidance above, however the exact mix of membership numbers and ARPA may vary. Our current estimates are that membership numbers will decrease by up to 3% year-on-year and ARPA will increase by £90-100 year-on-year.

OpenRent’s landlord customers will therefore lose access to the UK’s largest property-hunting customer base. Rightmove is the place where consumers can find more UK properties than any other portal, offering eight times more properties to rent than the next largest portal in the first half of 2024. Over 80% of all time spent by consumers on property portals continues to be spent on Rightmove.

Rightmove resale listings will not be affected in any way by this change.