Scrolling the other day, I noticed a report on BBC News of another successful year for Rightmove, the online estate agent. Profit before tax of £198.6m was announced – an increase from £178.3m in 2017. The online portal is the number one destination for buyers, and estate agents need this digital ‘shop window’ to access a wider audience of potential buyers in order to compete in a flagging property market.
As in so many aspects of daily life the increasing digitalisation of the world has had a huge impact on the business of buying and selling houses. We are far less likely these days to go in to an estate agent’s office to talk face to face and pick up printed particulars of a property than we are to be accessing such information in the middle of the night from our phones or tablets. This increases the efficiency of what has traditionally been perceived as a complicated and drawn out process – even if the knock-on effect is the ever increasing dependence we all have on our many and various devices. The 24/7 world we live in means that estate agents must have a constantly up to date online presence and they need Rightmove and other similar businesses in order to do this.
Rightmove say they expect the property advertising market will continue to grow, despite the continuing uncertainties stemming from the result of the EU referendum. Remaining vigilant to the macro environment, they say that they are not materially impacted by the property market cycle except in the most extreme circumstances. As a business that is closely linked to the property market, we at Structural Engineers Reports are pleased to hear of Rightmove’s success and hope that their positive expectations for the future are borne out.
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