Housing upturn boosts Rightmove

Rightmove said a mini-revival in the housing market is drawing back advertisers

The UK's biggest property website has said this year's mini-revival in the housing market is gradually drawing back advertisers to the business.

The number of advertisers on Rightmove's website stood at 17,600 at the end of October, up 5% from the depths reached in February.

Rightmove said it was being helped by an 8% rise in estate agency and lettings memberships to 14,100 since the end of January, as well as an upturn in the number of schemes from housebuilders.

Although housing associations are suffering from weaker Government funding - dampening overall development numbers - it counts all of the largest mainstream developers among its advertisers.

Meanwhile, home hunters are being tempted back into the market by record low interest rates - prompting the first year-on-year growth in house prices for 18 month in October according to building society Nationwide.

Rightmove said page impressions on its website between July and October were 35% ahead of the same period last year - including a record 600 million impressions in August - helped by a television advertising campaign as well as signs of recovery. The company's website receives around 40 million visits a month on average and has around one million properties for sale or rent. The number of enquiries generated for advertisers was also up 60% over the period.

Despite tough conditions in holiday rentals and overseas home sales, Rightmove has also made £5 million in savings and kept a tight rein on costs. Shares rose 2% today as it said it was confident of meeting market expectations this year and further progress in 2010.

Collins Stewart analyst Robin Savage said he expected Rightmove to be the "main beneficiary" of the shift in property advertising online away from newspapers. "By 2015, we expect advertising spend to double and the online share to double," he said.

Collins Stewart predicts Rightmove to post underlying earnings of £41.5 million this year, slightly below 2008's £42 million.