Rightmove 15 years on: Homes now double the asking price, thousands of pubs sold and home-hunting more popular than One Direction
Rightmove turns 15 this month and to mark the occasion we look back at some of the more unusual highlights since the website launched in March 2000.
Rightmove’s fifteen facts:
1. Find your happy at…Doorknob?
Hard to believe, but back in 2000 Rightmove was very nearly called Doorknob. It just doesn’t have the same ring to it does it?
2. A constant supply…
Since the website first launched there have been almost 40 million properties for sale and to rent on the site. Back in 2000 there were less than 10,000 properties compared to 2014 when there were almost 4.5 million
3. The Wright-move
The first ever Rightmove advert featured Arsenal legend Ian Wright
4. Strike a property pose
There have been over 2.5 billion images on the site, which if lined up side by side would go round the world almost nine times. 1.5 million images are uploaded to Rightmove every day
5. Making the Rightmove for love
There have been eight weddings between Rightmove colleagues over the past 15 years
6. You’ve been gnomed
All Rightmove employees who have been with the company for over 10 years have a personalised gnome created for them
7. Anyone for a pint?
Since launch there have been 3,711 pubs for sale on Rightmove – if you went on a pub crawl visiting each one per day it would take you over ten years to get round them all!
8. The Right Direction
According to Google trends Rightmove is a more popular search term than One Direction
9. The housing ladder
The first Rightmove House Price Index was launched in December 2001, when average asking prices in England and Wales were £127,882. Our latest Index revealed asking prices are now more than double that, at £281,752
10. Popular properties
The property that received the biggest number of hits so far was completely purple, and racked up over three million visits in 2013. The most viewed properties every year are often the million pound mansions that dreamers have a nosey around
11. Housing demand
Since we began home hunters have emailed or called Rightmove agents and new home developers over 220 million times –equivalent to more than three for every person in the UK. The busiest ever day on Rightmove was on Sunday 22nd February 2015 when home hunters got through almost 59 million pages of property
12. Employee loyalty
There are now over 400 employees at Rightmove and the first ever Rightmove employee still works here today. He loves it!
13. Building blocks
Between 2000 and 2014 there were over 2 million new homes built in the UK1, almost half a million less than the previous 15 years
14. Hot properties
Rightmove Overseas launched in 2004 and people can now search for property in 97 countries around the world
15. Top ten
The British property obsession has made Rightmove one of the UK’s top ten busiest websites, alongside brands like Google and Amazon
