Rightmove is to buy back another £90 million of its shares as it bids to prop up a share price that has halved over the past six months.
Most of that decline has come from fears that, in a world of artificial intelligence, people will ask ChatGPT to show them the homes that best fit their search criteria, not Rightmove.
In its annual results, published this morning, Johan Svanstrom, Rightmove’s chief executive, was at pains to prove that his business would be an AI winner, not a loser.
Rightmove’s position as Britain’s go-to property search website is “underpinned by proprietary data and ongoing product innovation”, he said, and there were repeated mentions of its progress with AI.
A conversational search function has been launched and an app it has built to sit within ChatGPT will be introduced “in the near future”.
“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,” Svanstrom said.
While there may be longer-term concerns about the need for intermediary platforms such as Rightmove, the website is still currently the starting point for most househunters.
As a consequence, estate agents know they need to pay to advertise their listings on Rightmove to boost their chances of completing sales. Another 200 or so branches signed up to Rightmove last year, taking the total number of estate agents and developers up to 19,272.
Rightmove also knows its importance to the ecosystem, and charges handsomely for access to its platform. Its average monthly cost went up by another 6 per cent — or £97 — in 2025 to £1,621 per branch. For most estate agents, their Rightmove subscription is their second-biggest expense after people.
The combination of charging higher prices to more customers drove revenues up by 9 per cent to £425.1 million in the 12 months to the end of December, up from £389.9 million in 2024. Pre-tax profits rose by 12 per cent to £290 million from £258.4 million.
The final dividend, to be paid in May, was lifted by 8 per cent to 6.59p a share, totalling £50 million, while Rightmove will return another £90 million to shareholders through share buybacks before the end of July.
Svanstrom said: “We have entered 2026 with confidence in our performance, leading with valued and specialised services that scale and deliver strong returns. We continue to execute our strategy to develop the leading digital ecosystem for the entire home-moving experience, powered by exceptional data and network effects.”
In its results, Rightmove confirmed that its investment in AI and new features would dent its profits this year. Its operating profit margin will drop from 70 per cent to 67 per cent this year, although that would still be envied by the rest of the FTSE 100.