Rightmove says it’s enjoyed a 150% rise in mortgage leads for lenders and brokers over the past year.

In a trading update at the start of the weekend, the portal posted revenue of some £390m for the four months to the end of October.

The update says: “Our strategic growth areas of mortgages, commercial property, and rental services continue to perform in line with our expectations. Within Mortgages, we have delivered >150% more leads to our lender and broker partners year-on-year, and recently launched a remortgage product within Track a Property, supporting the introduction of further leads to our broker partners.”

The Track a Property feature allows homeowners to keep tabs on the estimated value of up to 10 properties. If owners are willing to share their mortgage information, they will then have access to remortgage calculators and the option to contact Rightmove’s broker partners, generating leads for those advisers. 

Average Revenue Per Advertiser (ARPA) – a key measure for property websites – saw growth of £85 to £95 on 2023’s £1,431, reflecting what Rightmove calls “the successful sales and migration to the Optimiser Edge top-end package for Estate Agents, as well as product uptake across both Estate Agent and New Homes partners.”

In September, Rupert Murdoch’s REA Group ended its £6.1 billion takeover pursuit of Rightmove, following a fourth bid rejection by the portal.

Rightmove says it remains the place to which consumers turn first and return most – representing over 80% of all consumer time spent on UK property portals. 

Its cross-channel consumer marketing is focused on ensuring that it stays ahead of rivals: in H2, this has included sponsorship of `The Voice’ on ITV1 and ITVX which reached over 14m people, and the next phase of s brand campaign across social, video, out-of-home and Rightmove platforms which is expected to reach 95% of UK adults.

It also increased its social media presence with an 89% increase in engagement during the period. 

“We continue to innovate at scale and pace to drive engagement with our platform: within our Affordability product suite we launched the Renovation Calculator for consumers, with 20% of users tracking a property since launch adding a renovation” says the portal’s statement to shareholders. 

Chief executive Johan Svanstrom says “This has been another period of strong progress for Rightmove, and it’s pleasing to see our product development and sales delivery generating increased uptake from consumers and partners.  

“As a result, we remain confident in achieving meaningful strategic and financial growth in 2024.  “We see continued momentum building product depth across our platform – driving revenue growth in the core business and within our strategic growth areas.”