Rightmove plc is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

-based company that runs www.rightmove.co.uk, an online real estate portal. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange

London Stock Exchange

The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...

 and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index

FTSE 250 Index

The FTSE 250 Index is a capitalisation-weighted index consisting of the 101st to the 350th largest companies on the London Stock Exchange. Promotions to and demotions from the index take place quarterly in March, June, September and December...

.

The company

The Company was created in 2000 as a joint venture between four of the UK's largest property agents: Halifax, Countrywide plc

Countrywide

Countrywide Ltd are the United Kingdom's largest estate agency group. It employs 10,000 personnel nationwide, working across 1,300 estate agency or lettings offices operating under 46 local high street brands, supplemented by 650 mortgage consultants and over 350 surveyors...

, Royal & Sun Alliance, & Connells

Connells

Connells is a United Kingdom-based Estate Agents, that started in Luton in 1936. It is one of the four companies that grouped together in 2000 to form Rightmove which is widely regarded as the market leader for UK property search websites.-Awards:...

 under the name Rightmove.co.uk Limited.
It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange

London Stock Exchange

The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...

 in March 2006 at which time it became Rightmove plc.

In 2007 it bought 67% of Holiday Lettings Limited

In May 2008, HBOS

HBOS

HBOS plc is a banking and insurance company in the United Kingdom, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Lloyds Banking Group having been taken over in January 2009...

, one of the founding investors, sold its stake in Rightmove.

Operations

Rightmove makes money from listing estate agents on its website. Individuals selling property privately (i.e. directly without an agent) are prohibited from advertising on the site. Access is free for viewers, who are capable of both finding properties, subscribing to search results, as well as requesting further information and arranging viewings.

Research and statistics

Each month, Rightmove release a House Price Index, illustrating any changes in the asking prices of house throughout England and Wales. This information is based on the price that the seller of the property has decided to offer their property at and is not in fact the actual value of the house. Any change in 'sold' prices, the real measure of the actual value of a property, is not reflected by Rightmove's monthly report. Sadly, many News Papers can report on the Rightmove figures stating rising 'asking' prices and these articles can give a somewhat misleading impression that house prices are increasing nationally because misguided sellers have over-estimated their properties worth or had their property over-valued by estate agents desperate for work, when, in fact, the true figures (like those of the Land Registry showing sold prices) for the same month in question can actually reflect a MoM decline for the same month in question.

Mobile

Rightmove has a variety of applications that allow you to search for property on the move. These include an iPhone application, iPad application and mobile site. Both the iPhone and iPad applications have been featured as a part of apple's TV advertising campaigns.