Rightmove’s CEO earned almost £1.6 million last year, the portal’s latest accounts reveal.
Johan Svanstrom’s salary with bonuses increased by some £330,000 from £1.26 million in 2023. His basic salary in 2024 was £663,000, but with a bonus of £929,000, his total pay was £1.59 million.
Controversial
News of his salary rise comes at a time when Rightmove’s fees for agents have been controversial.
Earlier this year, a petition was launched by independent estate agent Shaun Adams calling for an investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) into the portal’s charging policies.
In response, Rightmove launched a campaign to promote the work of agents, selecting six ‘exceptional’ agents it said were ‘game changers’ in their local areas.
The portal claimed the agents chosen went “above and beyond”, highlighting the work that all estate agents do to “keep the nation moving”.
Slap in the face
But Adams called Rightmove’s ‘hero agents’ campaign a ‘slap in the face’. Svanstrom justified the portal’s pricing policy in its newly-released annual report by saying many more agents were signing up for its most expensive packages.
“Our premium packages allow our partners to tailor their entire package, select products relevant to them and gain optional access to exclusive products that are not otherwise available.
Increased uptake
“During the year, there were significant increases in uptake of our top packages by both estate agents and new homes developers,” he says.
“By the end of 2024, over 60% of developers were subscribed to the new homes package Advanced (2023: 53%) and 3,492 of our estate agent partners had adopted Optimiser Edge (2023:934).”
Also, top-priced packages including interactive Native Search Adverts were taken up by nearly four times as many agents in 2024, and Premium Price Guide was up three-fold.
Reported by David Callaghan Negotiator
