Online property giant Rightmove raised its dividend by nearly a quarter yesterday after delivering its 15th
consecutive year of growth since its birth.
The company, whose website advertises one million homes for sale or to rent, said revenues rose 15 per cent to
192.1 million last year.
Profits jumped 12 per cent to 137.1 million as the number of visits to the website rose by 18 per cent to a record
1.3 billion.
Rightmove, which was set up in 2000, raised the dividend for the year from 35p a share to 43p a share but the
stock fell 144p, or 3.68 per cent, to 3771p.
We continue to break records at the start of 2016 having already generated over nine million leads for our
customers, said chief executive Nick McKittrick.
The Rightmove figures came as a report from the Land Registry showed that in January house prices recorded
their biggest monthly jump since June 2002, rising by 2.5 per cent.
The 4,732 increase in the average property value compared with December pushed the average house price in
England and Wales to 191,812.
Peter Rollings, chief executive of estate agent Marsh & Parsons, said: First-time buyers and buy-to-let investors
are moving at a brisk pace, and while they continue to grossly outnumber properties for sales, house price growth
will persist through the wider political uncertainty.
But Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter, warned that people on average incomes will continue to face a
lifetime in expensive and unstable private renting, with little hope of saving for a home to put down roots in.
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