Rightmove

Good morning! Helene, the tropical storm that made landfall in Florida as a category 4 hurricane on Thursday night, is barreling up the Southeast and beyond — track it [here](. Today we're talking housing, housing, housing: - Rightmove: Britain’s version of Zillow is wildly profitable. - Living rearrangements: Buying with friends is getting less popular. - Top down: China’s property slump. Have feedback for us? Just hit reply - we'd love to hear from you! TOGETHER WITH [Sponsor Logo](   The UK’s largest online property portal, Rightmove, has now turned down three acquisition offers from the Murdoch-owned REA Group and, as of this morning, has just received a fourth. The latest bid values the company at £6.2 billion ($8.7 billion) — roughly an 11% bump on the initial offer first received on September 11th, per [Bloomberg](. While Rightmove might not be a household name for Americans, most would be familiar with what it offers: a platform for realtors to list properties, where would-be buyers can browse to their heart’s content, like Zillow or its rivals such as Realtor.com or Redfin. But, despite similar products, Zillow and Rightmove’s financials are wildly different. Although Zillow's cumulative revenue of $15 billion over the past decade-and-a-half greatly exceeds Rightmove's £3.2 billion ($4.3 billion), the British company has something else to show for its efforts: billions in profit. Indeed, Rightmove is a cash-producing machine, whereas Zillow has racked up loss after loss since going public in 2011. So, how is Rightmove so profitable, and Zillow so unprofitable. Arguably the main factor is simply that Zillow has a lot more competition, while Rightmove is highly dominant in the UK, with an estimated market share of some 80%, helping it keep both the largest audience and the most listings, in a virtuous circle. It does this with just ~800 employees. Australian-based REA Group is also highly profitable. Zillow, however, faces more substantial competition, and because of the sheer size of the US, the market is naturally a bit more regional. According to data from [Similarweb](, Zillow’s website got 357 million visits in August 2024. Realtor.com got 139 million and Redfin.com got 105 million. [Read this on the web instead](   They say romance is dead… but now, the days of non-romantic co-ownership may also be fading. In recent years, faced with one of the most unaffordable housing markets on record — on top of opportunities to find a significant other rapidly dwindling during the pandemic — settling down with a nice friend, sibling, cousin, or otherwise tolerable person started to make a lot of sense to prospective buyers. Indeed, as we were charting back in[May](, 14% of Millennials had reported buying homes with a friend. Just 1% of Baby Boomers said the same. The One with the Break Clause While buying a house with friends might at first seem like a fun idea from a ‘90s sitcom, mixing money with interpersonal relationships always comes with complications… and breaking out of shared mortgages can result in [messy legal battles](. Whether it’s because those co-ownership arrangements are ending naturally, though, or that more cautionary tales about the difficulty of splitting up not-so-easily-divided assets are emerging, the trend of buying homes with friends appears to be slowing down. As outlined by Dalvin Brown for [the WSJ](, the number of co-buyers with different last names jumped to ~1.3 million in 2021, but has since fallen almost 30%, according to property analytics firm Attom Data Solutions. The same piece also cites a Zillow survey, which revealed that the proportion of co-buyers purchasing with friends had halved, from 14% in 2023 to just 7% this year. Now, with the Fed’s interest rate cuts starting to feed through into [lower mortgage rates](, the housing market might start to look a little more promising for buyers — meaning that more home-owning buddies will want out of their current living arrangements, probably making for some pretty awkward dinner table conversation. [Read this on the web instead](   [Sponsored by EnergyX]( GM Invested in This Unlisted Lithium Stock For General Motors to successfully meet its EV target by 2035, they’ll need 414,469 tons of lithium per year. That’s why the automaking behemoth led a $50M investment round for [lithium extraction startup EnergyX](. Their patented tech extracts lithium 300% more efficiently than conventional methods — and where modern methods take 12+ months, [EnergyX needs just two days](. Now, EnergyX has acquired 100,000+ acres of lithium-rich Chilean land and a $5M DOE grant toward a recently announced US lithium plant. The energy storage market could reach $546B by 20351 – and it’s powered by lithium. . EnergyX’s plan to produce 65,000 tons per year will help them lead the charge. [However, EnergyX is only accepting shareholders until October 3..](2 [Become an EnergyX shareholder until October 3.2]( [Become an EnergyX shareholder until October 3.2](   A readout of a meeting of China’s leaders confirmed that the country’s highest ranking officials are intent on arresting the property decline that’s swept the nation in recent years. Per [CNBC](, President Xi Jinping led the meeting, calling for a raft of fiscal and monetary policies that could kickstart the country’s slumping property sector — often the most important wealth-building instrument for consumers. China’s real estate boom powered much of the rise of the country’s middle class. But mounting debt amongst developers, as well as in the burgeoning middle class that aspired to buy the millions of homes being built, has spoiled the party. Per the most recent national data, the price of new homes has fallen 5.3% in the last year. After the news, investors bid up Chinese property stocks, with the Hang Seng Property Development and Management Index up nearly 12%. [Read this on the web instead](   More Data - F1 fans can channel their inner Verstappen with a new $136,448 Red Bull Racing simulator, based on a model from the [2023 season](. - How Covid turbocharged profits in [corporate America](. - Clamber your way up the property ladder with this $20 million NYC townhouse, which comes equipped with an 83-foot [climbing wall](. - Spirit levels: The longest-standing legal distillery in the Scottish Highlands is releasing its oldest whisky to date — a scotch that’s been aging for 55 years, [worth $55,000](. - Can a company like OpenAI be worth $150 billion if most of the people who built it aren’t there [anymore](? A new lease of Li…Lithium demand is expected to grow 20X by 2040. EnergyX extracts lithium 300% more efficiently than current methods, which has earned them $100M in investment from General Motors, POSCO, and other investors. Become [an early EnergyX investor by Oct. 3](.2 Ad   Hi-Viz - Great [aerial photos]( of Cards Against Humanity’s land in Texas [before]( and [after]( SpaceX moved in, following the former’s $15 million lawsuit against Musk’s company. Off the charts: America’s most visited news website is [set to trial a paywall]( from October — which publisher is it? [Answer here.](   Thanks for stopping by! Have some [feedback](mailto:daily@chartr.co?subject=Feedback&body=Hi, I like the newsletters, but I had a thought for you...) or want to [sponsor this newsletter](mailto:advertising@sherwoodmedia.com?subject=I’m interested in advertising with Sherwood Media)?   Not a subscriber? Sign up for free below. [Subscribe](   Advertiser’s disclosures: 1[“Global battery energy storage market could grow to $546B, says analyst,](” Renewable Energy World, 2020. 2 Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Start-up investments are speculative and involve a high degree of risk. Those investors who cannot afford to lose their entire investment should not invest in start-ups. Companies seeking startup investment tend to be in earlier stages of development and their business model, products and services may not yet be fully developed, operational or tested in the public marketplace. There is no guarantee that the stated valuation and other terms are accurate or in agreement with the market or industry valuations. Further, investors may receive illiquid and/or restricted stock that may be subject to holding period requirements and/or liquidity concerns. This is a paid advertisement for EnergyX’s Regulation A+ Offering. Please read the [offering circular]( and [related risks]( at [invest.energyx.com]( DealMaker Securities LLC, a registered broker-dealer, and member of FINRA | SIPC, located at 105 Maxess Road, Suite 124, Melville, NY 11747, is the Intermediary for this offering and is not an affiliate of or connected with the Issuer. Please check our background on FINRA's BrokerCheck.   [X]( [Instagram]( [Chartr Logo]( Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate... [See more]( [Sherwood Terms and Conditions]( [Our Editorial Standards]( [Contact Us](mailto:daily@chartr.co?body=Hi%2C%0A%0AI%20like%20the%20newsletters%2C%20but%20I%20had%20a%20thought%20for%20you...&subject=Feedback) [Advertise With Us](mailto:advertising@sherwoodmedia.com?body=I%E2%80%99m%20interested%20in%20advertising%20with%20Sherwood%20Media) [Unsubscribe](newsletter=chartr) [Privacy Policy](