Righmove subsciption woes

[dazwalsh]

i am in the middle of forming a business plan for setting up a lettings agency in my local area. first phase is to get to 25 properties on the books. my costs to do so are minimal since i already own a btl portfolio so i know the ins and outs of property letting and have a lot of experience in web design and SEO.

That was until i came to the advertising research, where i thought i may have to pay up to £100 per property to advertise on the big boys. well i was wrong there. Initial searching seems to suggest i may have to pay up to £1000+ per MONTH for a subscription, which would st all over my biggest expenses for which i may only use the service about 10 times a year perhaps at least initially.

Is there any way round this? are there any companies offering a per advertisement fee for agencies? what makes it infuriating to the core is that there is no way you can go at this without advertising on there as they have a very high percentage of the market wrapped up.

In the past ive been able to advertise on there for 30 quid a pop, but that is on personally owned properties.

thanks in advance

Darren

Edited by dazwalsh on Friday 27th December 23:32

[russy01]

It was put up quite a lot early 2019, but not by 50% - so it’s been in this ballpark for a while.

Whilst it’s not cheap? What did you expect? We’d all have an account on RM letting each others properties if there wasn’t some barrier to entry!

Have a look at Zoopla or OTM. These can come in at less than half the price of RM - however I’d imagine you’d be at a severe disadvantage as most customers are going to assume and expect a listing on RM as a minimum.

[andyb28]

I would think that most people looking for property would at least also use Zoopla.

I personally find it a much better platform and the text search makes it a far more useful tool.

[jammy-git]

Rightmove have had a near monopoly for a long, long time. They can charge what they want.

[dazwalsh]

jammy-git said:

Rightmove have had a near monopoly for a long, long time. They can charge what they want.

Surely that had to come crashing down around their ears at some point though as they squeeze agencies too much.

[Trev27]

dazwalsh said:

jammy-git said:

Rightmove have had a near monopoly for a long, long time. They can charge what they want.

Surely that had to come crashing down around their ears at some point though as they squeeze agencies too much.

Nope. On The Market was owned and developed by said agencies to do exactly that. It doesn’t appear to have succeeded.