Rightmove PLC (LSE:RMV)'s 2021 profit exceeded pre-pandemic levels, with the British online real-estate portal putting to rest concerns about a slowdown caused by inflation and rising living costs.
Pretax profit increased to £225.6mln in 2021 from £134.8mln in the previous year. Revenue rose by 48% to £304.9mln.
A 67% increase in operating profit amounted to £226.1mln. A final dividend of 4.8p a share was declared, up from 4.5p in 2020, for a total of 7.8p for 2021.
A final dividend of 4.8p per share is declared for 2021.
On the outlook, the company said as the market normalizes, it anticipates that transaction volume will return to pre-pandemic levels.
The firm will "focus on revenue growth, with costs in the historic range of 25%-27% of revenues."
The portal's key metric is the average revenue per advertiser. It increased by 53% in 2021 to £1,189 per agent per month.
2021 saw a 41% increase in housing transactions over 2020 and a 26% increase over 2019, ending the year at 1.44mln.
However, year-on-year membership numbers are down 1%, due to a 1% increase in agency branches and a 13% decline in new home developments. Membership was down 4% compared to December 2019.
Peter Brooks-Johnson, chief executive officer, said people spent 18bn minutes searching and researching for their new home.
Chair Andrew Fisher said, "2021 has been the busiest year in Rightmove's history. The UK property market has seen extraordinary activity this year with over 1.4mln transactions fuelling an increase of 4.6% in average house prices."