Property portal Rightmove has said that its contract with OpenRent will be terminated, effective 1 September.
In an update today, Rightmove said that “conditions” for OpenRent’s ongoing membership “could not be agreed”.
OpenRent is an online lettings agent within Rightmove’s estate agency sub-segment and represents around 700 “branch equivalents”.
The property portal added that OpenRent represented less than 8% of its lettings listings as of July.
As a result of the contract termination, OpenRent’s landlord customers will lose access to the “UK’s largest property-seeking audience”, Rightmove said, but resale listings will be unaffected.
The firm said that in the first half of the year, it delivered eight times the number of properties rented versus the next-biggest portal.
Rightmove reiterated that it expected revenue growth of 7-9% and an underlying operating margin of 70%, excluding one-off acquisition costs and Coadjute investment.
OpenRent was founded in 2012 and became the UK’s largest letting agent in 2015, according to its website.
The company added that there were around 6.8 million registered landlords and tenants on its site, with around 1.2 million properties let.
Anna is currently the deputy editor for Mortgage Solutions and editor for Specialist Lending Solutions. She has worked as a journalist since 2019, having secured her Gold Standard NCTJ diploma from News Associates in a fast-track six-month course.
She started her career as a report at specialist publication The Insurance Insider covering a wide range of areas before joining Mortgage Solutions and Specialist Lending Solutions in 2021.
In her role, she helps put together and structure the news agenda for the day and writes up press releases, reports, interviews, analyses and exclusives across both titles. She also commissions blogs for Specialist Lending Solutions and hosts online masterclasses and in-person events across the business.
She has been shortlisted for three journalism awards, which include BIBA Journalist and Media Awards Scoop of Year Award in 2020, Headline Money Mortgage Journalist of the Year Award (B2B) in 2022 and 2023.
Prior to being a journalist, Anna worked in ecommerce across Snow + Rock, Cycle Surgery and Runners Need websites, and before that worked at specialist financial PR firm Rostrum.
In her spare time, Anna enjoys reading, seeing live music, and cooking for friends and family. When she gets a chance, she also enjoys hiking, skiing and indoor rock climbing.
