7th Nov 2013 08:30
LONDON (Alliance News) - Rightmove PLC Thursday said it has experienced revenue growth in the past four months, boosted by an increase in advertiser revenue and page impressions for its website, as estate agents took advantage of the UK housing recovery.
The company, which runs rightmove.co.uk, said average revenue per advertiser continued to grow between July and October, as customers continued to increase spend on additional advertising products to promote their brands and properties on its site.
The site allows estate agents and home sellers to advertise properties for sale and potential buyers to browse those adverts, which include descriptions, pictures and often floor plans, plus the estate agent or seller contact details. It provides the same service for renters and letters.
Agency membership at the end of October increased 2% since the first half of the year to 16,093, it said, while the number of property developments advertised on the site increased by 31 to 2,279. Rigntmove also said it had increased its membership fees.
Overall, the number of agency and new property developments on the website at the end of October stood at 18,372, which Rightmove said was up 2% since the end of the first half of the year.
To expand the brand, the company invested in TV advertising, search-engine optimisation and a campaign targeted at London, where the UK house-price recovery has been most apparent.
Rightmove also has developed its desktop and mobile platforms. This has resulted in page impressions growing 30% compared with the same period in 2012, it said, with 1.7 billion page views on its mobile platform during the period - almost double that in 2012.
Rightmove said the increase in traffic, in addition to the rollout of local geographic telephone numbers, resulted in new records for the number of enquiries generated from customers. This was up 80% compared with 2012, it said.
Since the announcement of its half-year results in July, the firm acquired and subsequently cancelled 1 million shares at a cost of GBP23.4 million.
At the end of October Rightmove had GBP15.8 million in cash.
The company plans to pay shareholders an interim dividend of 11 pence per share on Nov 8.
In early trading Thursday, Rightmove shares were up 23.00 pence at 2,650.00p.
By Anthony Tshibangu; [email protected]; @AnthonyAllNews
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