15 straight years of growth at Rightmove

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 15pc to £192.1m last year. Profits jumped 12pc to £137.1m as the number of visits to the website rose by 18pc to a record 1.3bn.

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 3.68pc, to 3771p.

‘We continue to break records at the start of 2016 having already generated over nine million leads for

‘We continue to break records’

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 2.5pc.

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 buyto-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’.