Rightmove CEO Calls AI an Opportunity, Not a Threat, as Portal Faces £2bn Wipeout
Johan Svanstrom positions UK's dominant property platform as an adapter rather than victim of disruption—but investors remain unconvinced after shares fell 45%.
Rightmove Plc’s chief executive has declared AI will strengthen rather than disrupt property portals, offering a rare contrarian stance as the UK’s largest property platform fights to stem a £2 billion collapse in market value.
Speaking to Bloomberg on February 27, CEO Johan Svanstrom said City A.M. that the technology presents “more of an opportunity than a threat for the sector,” defending aggressive investments that have divided shareholders and prompted a 35% share price decline since November. The comments came hours after Rightmove reported 9% revenue growth to £425.1 million for 2025 and announced a £90 million share buyback—its first pre-announced programme of this scale.
The optimism contrasts sharply with market sentiment. Rightmove’s shares plunged 25% in a single day last November when management forecast profit growth of just 3-5% for 2026, down from consensus expectations of 9%, citing £18 million in AI-related spending. Since August 2025, the company has lost over £2 billion in market capitalisation, falling from a 52-week high to as low as 411 pence before recovering modestly.
The Disruption Thesis
Investors are pricing in existential risk: that AI-powered search from ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and emerging competitors will bypass property portals entirely, allowing users to discover listings directly from estate agent websites. According to Online Marketplaces, share prices at leading international classifieds operators have fallen significantly since October 2025, including Australia’s REA Group (-13%), Germany’s Scout24 (-15%), and Switzerland’s SMG (-26%).
The concern is structural. Rightmove’s business model—charging estate agents subscription fees averaging £1,530 per month to list properties—depends on controlling access to inventory. If AI can aggregate listings without Rightmove as intermediary, the company’s 80% UK market share and 70% operating margins face compression. Malcolm Myers, founder at European Internet Ventures, noted the “moat to supply is eroding fast, and it’s not coming back.”
When Yahoo Finance asked ChatGPT and Google Gemini to assess the threat, they returned scores of 5/10 and 8/10 respectively—an average disruption risk of 7/10. Gemini specifically warned that if estate agents “can generate high-quality, pre-qualified leads directly without paying the portal’s high fees, the economic incentive to starve the portal of data is enormous.”
“We create value as a leading digital enabler of the property market, delivering that value through the high quality and trusted foundations of our business, underpinned by proprietary data and ongoing product innovation.”
— Johan Svanstrom, CEO, Rightmove
Doubling Down on AI
Rather than retreat, Svanstrom is accelerating. Rightmove has signed a multi-year partnership with Google Cloud to deploy Vertex AI and Gemini models across its platform, launched conversational search in February 2026, and is preparing a ChatGPT app integration that will allow users to search Rightmove listings via natural language prompts within OpenAI’s interface. The company describes the ChatGPT app as an “experiment” designed to capture users “in the early discovery stage” before directing them to Rightmove’s full platform for detailed searches and agent contact.
According to The Negotiator, Rightmove already captures over 70% of all time spent on UK property portals, based on SimilarWeb and data.ai metrics. The platform recorded 16.8 billion minutes of user engagement in 2025—up 2% year-on-year—with more than 85% of traffic arriving direct or organic, minimising dependency on paid acquisition.
New AI-powered tools include Online Agent Valuation (now the fastest-growing product in Rightmove’s history), image-based AI keyword search on mobile apps, and predictive models to help agents identify potential vendors. Thirty-five percent of independent estate agents now subscribe to Optimiser Edge, Rightmove’s top-tier package, up from previous periods. Average revenue per advertiser grew 6% to £1,530 per month, with 62% of the increase driven by product upgrades rather than price hikes.
Rightmove dominates the UK property portal market with an estimated 75-80% market share. Competitor Zoopla holds the number two position, while OnTheMarket—acquired by CoStar Group in December 2023 for £99 million—is attempting to challenge both incumbents with aggressive marketing spend. Rightmove reported 16,385 estate agency branch memberships as of year-end 2025, representing 2% growth and the second-highest retention rate in over a decade.
Financial Resilience, Strategic Caution
Despite investor anxiety, Rightmove’s fundamentals remain robust. The company reported profit before tax of £290 million in 2025, up 12%, with estate agency membership growing 2% and retention above 90%. Rightmove guided for 8-10% revenue growth in 2026, with strategic growth areas including commercial property, mortgages, and rental services expected to expand 20-30%.
Management expects underlying operating profit growth of 3-5% in 2026, reflecting the investment phase, before returning to double-digit profit growth in subsequent years. The operating margin, while compressing from 70% to an anticipated 67%, remains among the highest in global classifieds. The £90 million buyback, to be completed by July 31, 2026, signals confidence in intrinsic value following the share price correction.
Yet activist investor Industrial Financial Partners, which took a £250 million stake in December 2025, suggests the market is not convinced. According to Investing.com, IFP has an interventionist track record and may lobby for strategic changes as Rightmove navigates margin pressure and AI competition.
| Portal | Market Position | Key Metric |
|---|---|---|
| Rightmove | #1 (75-80% share) | 16.8bn mins engagement |
| Zoopla | #2 | 19,913 agent customers (2021) |
| OnTheMarket | #3 (CoStar-owned) | 56m visits/month (Sept 2024) |
The Counterargument
Industry observers point to structural advantages that may insulate Rightmove from disruption. The platform’s proprietary data—including 1.1 million active listings, sold price histories, and neighbourhood analytics—cannot be easily replicated by LLMs scraping agent websites. Network effects remain powerful: buyers go where inventory is deepest, and agents list where buyers search, creating self-reinforcing demand.
Moreover, property search is not purely transactional. Users spend an average of 7 minutes per visit across multiple sessions, using mortgage calculators, school catchment maps, and local market data—tools difficult to replicate in a ChatGPT interface. Rightmove’s brand recognition as the “go-to” UK property platform, built over 25 years, provides inertia against challengers.
The company’s AI strategy aims to meet users where they are—whether on Rightmove’s site, via ChatGPT, or through conversational search—while maintaining control of the “full property search experience” that drives agent and developer subscriptions. As Svanstrom told investors, the goal is to become “the UK’s leading digital ecosystem for the entire moving experience.”
What to Watch
The ChatGPT app launch, expected in coming weeks, will provide early signals on whether AI integration drives incremental engagement or cannibalises core traffic. If users complete property searches within ChatGPT without clicking through to Rightmove, the referral model collapses. Conversely, if the app acts as a top-of-funnel discovery tool that funnels serious buyers to Rightmove’s platform, the strategy validates.
Watch estate agent sentiment. If agents perceive direct AI discovery tools as viable alternatives to portal subscriptions, churn will accelerate—particularly as Rightmove raised prices above inflation in recent years. Competitor OnTheMarket, backed by CoStar’s capital, is positioning itself as a lower-cost alternative at roughly 13.5% of agent commission versus Rightmove’s higher fees.
Finally, margin trajectory matters. If Rightmove’s operating margin stabilises in the high 60s while revenue growth remains mid-to-high single digits, the investment thesis holds. If margin compression steepens beyond 2026 without corresponding revenue acceleration, the market will question whether AI spending is defensive—buying time against disruption—or genuinely transformative. Svanstrom’s bet is that incumbency, data, and speed of execution create a widening moat. The next 18 months will determine whether investors agree.