By Eva Mathews
(Reuters) -Even as the British housing market suffers a slowdown, Rightmove is confident of sustaining growth thanks to steady demand from homebuilders and agents looking for buyers and renters, company executives said on Friday.
UK's largest property portal reported a 10% rise in revenue for January-June, its highest revenue growth for the first-half period in five years, against a backdrop of higher mortgage rates and a rising cost of living.
"The main developers in the UK list with us because we have such a large share of consumer time spent on portals so they all see us as a very effective route to selling their property," CFO Alison Dolan said in an interview.
"Fundamentally, there is a housing shortage in the UK so you will see pockets of demand start to increase despite the increased cost of living and the cost of the mortgage," Dolan added.
The company sharpened its outlook for annual average revenue per advertiser (ARPA) to be at the top-end of the 95 pounds ($121.54) -105 pound range for the full year.
"The release shows confidence for the remainder of FY23 despite cyclical pressures," according to Credit Suisse (SIX:CSGN) analysts.
Moreover, there is surging demand for rentals, CEO Johan Svanstrom said.
Homebuilders on the platform have upgraded their memberships, in a bid to utilise its tools to find buyers through the various stage of development as quickly as possible, Svanstrom added.
Total memberships rose 1% to 19,116 in the first half of the year.
However, Rightmove forecast higher costs for the second half, amid soaring labour costs and macroeconomic uncertainty. In the first half, underlying costs rose 15% to 46.3 million pounds.
Rising costs pushed shares in the London-listed firm down 2.2% on Friday. The shares have gained nearly 6% since the start of the year.
For the six months to June, operating profit stood at 129.5 million pounds on revenue of 179.5 million pounds.
($1 = 0.7816 pounds)