What will replace the UKโs most profitable proptech Rightmove and why?
Why AI in time will break the โproperty search portalโ habit
Thought Leadership by Andrew Stanton, CEO Proptech-PR
Rightmove the UKโs most profitable proptech
Rightmove is widely considered the most profitable proptech business in the UK, generating approximately ยฃ300m+ in annual revenue while sustaining exceptionally high operating margins in the region of 70%. Even allowing for modest margin compression in recent reporting cycles, it remains one of the most lucrative digital marketplace models in Europe.
The reason it wins is structurally simple but commercially powerful. Its marketplace model where agents pay recurring subscriptions, (which are increased annually) creates predictable, high-margin revenue. This is reinforced by a possible monopoly network effects in UK property listings, where scale begets scale, and by exceptionally low marginal costs relative to revenue once the platform is established.
In practical terms, no UK proptech comes close to its profit levels or margins. It is not just a market leader, until recently it was the โmodelโ that many proptech founders wished to emulate.
The misunderstood reality of UK proptech profits
Before diving deeper into Rightmove, there is despite hundreds of announcements of funding rounds a very hidden side to getting from mvp to exit, an area I have been involved in for a decade, working 1:1 with proptech founders. What most people misunderstand is that while the UK is home to 845 proptech companies, the majority are bootstrapped or venture-backed, focused on growth rather than profitability, and often operating at a loss or hovering around breakeven.
As a result, profit in UK proptech is highly concentrated in a small number of mature platforms, particularly marketplaces and data-driven businesses. The long tail of innovation exists, but the economic value is disproportionately captured at the top. Which I now predict will not be the case anymore.
The current hierarchy
We know then that the highest profit models has until recently remained consistent with Marketplaces (Rightmove) delivering the best margins. With data and analytics platforms in second place being highly scalable and capital light. Solidly bringing up the rear guard is vertical SaaS, for example property management, a slower growth model but durable.
AI will in time break the โsearch portalโ habit
AI will not โkillโ marketplace models like Rightmove overnight, that is a far too simplistic view. However, it does directly attack the underlying mechanics that enable those 70% margins: control of listings, aggregation of traffic, and agent dependency. Quietly like a thief in the night a structural, almost imperceptible change is coming. Let me explain.
Rightmoveโs core value proposition has always been clear; โcome to our site to browse listings. But AI inverts that model entirely: โtell me what you want, and I will bring you the best options.โ
This is significant as users no longer need to browse twenty pages of listings. AI agents can aggregate properties from multiple sources simultaneously, shifting discovery away from the portal and into an assistant layer.
If the starting point for property search becomes AI-driven interfaces which we are seeing now, whether ChatGPT-style assistants, voice search, or embedded tools within banking and mortgage platforms then the user journey fundamentally changes. Traffic no longer flows to Rightmoveโs front door. It is intercepted upstream.
Andrew Stanton CEO Proptech-PR
The Rentersโ Rights Act is a backward step โ the market will prove it
Sold as a generational reset for the private rented sector, it will have dire outcomes.
Thought Leadership by Andrew Stanton CEO Proptech-PR
The 1st of May 2026, the UK governmentโs Rentersโ Rights Act came into being. A law that was being sold as a generational reset for the private rented sector. In reality, it risks becoming a case study in how well-intentioned policy can misread market dynamics and make things worse.
For those operating in proptech, lettings, and residential investment, the direction of travel is clear: this is not reform, itโs contraction disguised as protection. With both landlords and tenants now bound together with their backs firmly touching. And things could get even icier if Rachel Reeves implements rent caps in the PRS.
A policy built on the wrong diagnosis
At its core, the Act assumes the primary problem in the rental market is landlord behaviour. It isnโt.
The UKโs rental crisis is fundamentally a supply problem. Demand has consistently outpaced available stock for over a decade, driven by population growth, affordability constraints in homeownership, and planning bottlenecks.
Against that backdrop, the Act doubles down on tenant-side protections without introducing meaningful supply-side incentives. That imbalance matters because when you regulate a constrained market without increasing supply, you donโt fix itโyou distort it.
Section 21: Political win, practical loss
The abolition of Section 21 โno-faultโ evictions is the headline reform. Politically, itโs compelling; operationally, itโs problematic.
Replacing it with a fully grounds-based possession system means landlords will face greater reliance on the courts, longer timelines to regain possession, and higher evidentiary thresholds. For institutional operators, this introduces friction, but for small landlords, it becomes a moment of risk recalibration.
And risk, in property, is priced ruthlessly. The likely response is tighter tenant screening, reduced flexibility, and in many cases, exit from the market altogether.
The death of Fixed Terms โ flexibility at what cost?
The move to periodic tenancies is framed as tenant empowerment, but from an asset management perspective it introduces income volatility into what has traditionally been a semi-predictable cashflow model.
This shift has knock-on effects, as mortgage underwriting becomes more conservative, yield projections become less reliable, and portfolio churn risk increases. For proptech platforms built around optimisation, forecasting, and portfolio analytics, this fundamentally complicates the data model.
Flexibility sounds attractive, but markets do not run on sentiment. They run on predictability.
Andrew Stanton CEO Proptech-PR
What actually drives tenant experience in commercial real estate?
Week 47: The Tenant Experience Stack โ What Actually Matters (and What Doesnโt)
In this weekly series, we explore how the commercial real estate industry is being transformed by data and digital infrastructure. Guided by the principles in Peak Property Performance (Podcast & Best-Selling Book), we unpack a new idea every week to help owners unlock value, reduce risk, and digitally future-proof their portfolios. Learn more about OpticWise and Bill Douglas, the authors of this series.
โTenant experienceโ has become one of the most overusedโand misunderstoodโterms in CRE.
For some, it means a mobile app.
For others, itโs amenity spaces or smart locks.
For many, itโs a collection of disconnected tools layered onto the building.
But hereโs the reality:
Tenant experience isnโt a feature set. Itโs an outcome.
And that outcome is only as strong as the data and digital infrastructure (DDI) behind it.
The Problem: Too Much Noise, Not Enough Value
The typical โtenant experience stackโ today includes:
- Mobile apps for communication and booking
- Access control systems
- Package management tools
- Wi-Fi onboarding portals
- Work order platforms
- Digital signage and engagement tools
Individually, each serves a purpose.
But when they arenโt integrated, they create:
- Friction for tenants
- Complexity for operators
- Data silos for ownership
- Costs that donโt translate into retention or rent growth
Thatโs not experience. Thatโs clutter.
Andrew Stanton CEO Proptech-PR
