Estate agents across the country are being held to ransom by Rightmove which is raising its subscription fees again this year, according to the owner of an agency in Brighton, which is facing an 18% fee hike.
Cooper Adams in East Preston has been told by Rightmove that they face substantial hikes in their monthly fees when they come up for renewal.
But the estate agency’s owner, Shaun Adam, believes that the property portal could be in breach of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) rules as it is, in his view, abusing their dominant market position and engaging in anti-competitive behaviour.
Adams has launched a petition calling for a halt to the surge in Rightmove issuing a ‘Call for CMA Probe into Rightmove’s Unfair Pricing Practices Affecting Estate Agents’. See petition., which has attracted just over 60 signatures since launching yesterday.
Adams lists the following reasons as to why the CMA might take an interest:
Market Dominance:
+ Rightmove controls the majority of the UK property portal market (over 86% of all time spent on property portals in the UK).
+ Their brand dominance forces estate agents to stay on the platform to meet client expectations.
Potential Anti-Competitive Practices:
+ Unfair Pricing: Rightmove is increasing fees by 18% while offering larger agencies lower, negotiated rates. This disproportionately impacts small independent agents who have less bargaining power.
+ Lock-in Tactics: Rightmove’s strategy of increasing rates for agents who leave and later return discourages competition and restricts market movement.
+ Lack of Value Justification: They have a 71.5% profit margin and are not reinvesting significantly to provide 18% more value to agents or the public.
Consumer Impact:
+ Independent agents pass these higher costs onto consumers, increasing selling and renting fees.
+ This could reduce consumer choice, as smaller agents struggle to compete with corporate agencies that get lower Rightmove fees.
+ Over time, this might lead to less competition in the estate agency sector, which harms consumers and raises property marketing costs.
Possible CMA Actions:
+ Launch an investigation into Rightmove’s pricing structure under UK competition law (abuse of dominant position).
+ Call for a fairer pricing structure that doesn’t penalise small independent agents.
+ Introduce market regulations to prevent excessive fee increases.
