Rightmove 'untroubled' by cooling off in the property market, says departing CEO

The number of customers who use the platform over the year is expected to be broadly similar to the second half of last year.

“While we remain alert to the ongoing economic uncertainty, Rightmove is not materially impacted by the property market cycle, other than in the most extreme circumstances,” the business said.

Chief executive Peter Brooks-Johnson said: “The year’s changing housing market conditions demonstrated our customers’ resilience and ability to adapt and to continue to succeed.

“The softening from the Covid-induced frenetic market towards a more normal market earlier in the year was disrupted in the final few months by the unexpected rapid mortgage rate increases.

“The strength of our results is a reminder of how effective and integral our new and existing products and services are in helping our customers in both faster and slower markets.”

The confident statements come amid a cracking market. House prices are starting to fall, prompting housebuilding giants Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey to slash the number of homes they plan to build this year by around a third.”

Rightmove said that revenue rose 9 per cent to £333 million in 2022 and it made a pre-tax profit of £241 million, up 7 per cent on the year before.

The business said that people spent 16.3 billion minutes on its platform in 2022 – or around 1.1 million days – down from 18.3 billion during the “frenetic” prior year.

Despite the drop since 2021 the figure is a third higher than its pre-pandemic record in 2019.

Mr Brooks-Johnson said: “Rightmove continues to be the place that people turn to and return to first, with an average of over 1.35bn minutes spent on our platform every month in 2022.

“The continuing love home movers have for Rightmove is testament to the team’s focus on providing an easy to use leading edge platform, enhanced with innovation which home movers want.”

Mr Brooks-Johnson is stepping down as CEO after six years in the role and 17 years in the business.

He said: “There’s much more to come and exciting plans ahead for Rightmove. As a company that will always be close to my heart, and as a shareholder, I look forward to watching Rightmove’s ongoing progress as it continues to make home moving easier.”

Rightmove chair Andrew Fisher thanked Mr Brooks-Johnson for his work and said he had been “fundamental in helping Rightmove become the successful business it is today and the UK’s largest property portal”.