Rightmove’s latest marketing campaign to champion the work of estate and letting agents has drawn a fierce backlash from one of the sector’s most outspoken figures.
Trevor Abrahmsohn (main picture), Founder and Director of Glentree International and a long-standing critic of the major portals, has slammed the property giant’s new campaign – ‘The Game Changers’ – branding it a cynical PR move designed to gloss over what he sees as years of exploitative behaviour towards agents.
The portal’s campaign, which launched this week, invites movers and landlords to submit positive stories about their experiences with agents since January 2024.
Six winning entries will be selected by a judging panel, and the featured agents will be spotlighted in a summer marketing campaign and receive additional prizes. Story entrants stand to win a £500 gift card.
NUT SQUEEZING
But In a blistering statement issued to industry press Abrahmsohn said: “As Rightmove, very predictably, ‘squeeze the nuts of the agents’, I have a wry smile at the news that they wish to ‘highlight the game-changing role of agents’.”
Abrahmsohn, who was instrumental in founding OnTheMarket.com (OTM) as a rival platform to protect agents’ interests, sees the move as deeply disingenuous.
He added: “Goodness knows how much effort and money I personally invested into protecting the collective interests of the agents by creating a utility site, OnTheMarket.com, and what did the ‘goons’ do with it? – give it away, so that instead of it being a haven of protection it will become another hostile force in the market, against the agents.”
The scathing comments reflect long-standing tensions between the UK’s leading property portals and the agency community they rely on for listings and revenue.
Many agents have voiced frustration over Rightmove’s pricing model, which has seen fees rise steadily over the years despite growing competitive pressure from challengers like Zoopla and OnTheMarket.
Abrahmsohn, known for his unfiltered commentary and decades of experience handling prime London property, pulled no punches in his assessment of the broader dynamics at play.
“None so deaf as those who won’t hear. Get used to a rich diet of extortion, since this is the only meal on the menu! Just my thoughts.”
AWKWARD TIMING
The timing of his remarks is awkward for Rightmove, which had hoped to generate a wave of goodwill through the campaign by positioning agents as unsung heroes in the home-moving journey.
As Property Soup revealed last week, Christian Balshen, Rightmove’s Director of Agency Partnerships, said the goal of the campaign was to “remind people of the great work done day-in day-out by the property professionals of the UK.”
“It can be easy for some home-movers to undervalue the professionalism, knowledge and sheer hard-work that estate and letting agents put in to helping them – this is understandable given that people move home relatively infrequently when compared with other transactions in their life.”
Rightmove will promote the campaign via its website, Instagram, and weekly newsletter sent to millions of subscribers, and is encouraging agents to share the competition with clients. Entries must be verified with the named agencies before final selections are made.
Yet for critics like Abrahmsohn, the initiative rings hollow.
“It’s the height of hypocrisy to praise agents while simultaneously burdening them with rising costs and limited options,” said one agency boss, who asked not to be named.
“If Rightmove really wanted to support agents, they’d look at pricing models – not PR campaigns.”
