Rightmove Lifts Earnings Target as AI Tools Spread and UK Buyer Demand Falls 10%

In its trading update, the London-listed company said it now expects underlying earnings per share to grow by at least 7% this year, up from at least 5%. It narrowed expected revenue growth to 6% to 7%, from 6% to 8%, and said underlying operating profit should grow by at least 3%. Rightmove blamed the lower revenue range entirely on weaker spending by housebuilders. It cut guidance for growth in average revenue per advertiser to £100 to £110, from £110 to £120, and left its estate agency expectations unchanged.

The update tests whether Rightmove's AI spending is paying off. In November last year its shares fell more than 25% in a day after it forecast slower profit growth for 2026 and pointed to higher investment in AI. Both Rightmove and Scout24, its German counterpart, are now telling investors that AI products are opening new sources of revenue while housing markets stay subdued.

For 2027, Rightmove expects revenue to grow at about the same rate as in 2026, underlying operating profit to rise 4% to 7% with a margin of at least 67%, and underlying earnings per share to grow at least 10%. It expects core membership to stay broadly flat and its strategic growth areas to grow 20% to 30%.

Agents Use Call Transcription

The housing market itself is getting weaker. In the four months to October 31, buyer demand fell 10% and agreed sales fell 9% from a year earlier, the company said. The average five-year fixed mortgage rate reached 5.5% on October 31, up from 5% on June 30. Rightmove also warned that the Bank of England's rate rise on Thursday could hurt affordability further, according to Property Industry Eye. Average asking prices were 0.3% lower than a year earlier, rents were 2.9% higher, and mortgage-in-principle submissions rose by more than 50%.

Rightmove gave several figures on AI use. Since its launch in late summer, AI call transcription has handled more than 2 million calls, and all estate agency partners get it through Rightmove Plus at no extra package charge. The Call Intelligence tool in Optimiser Edge has processed more than 1 million calls, and about 14,000 agents have used the Rightmove Plus AI Assistant. The company said people who use its conversational AI tools stay on the site more than twice as long and save three times as many properties. Those users choose the tools themselves, though, so the comparison does not show that the tools caused the difference.

"We are on track to deliver revenue and profit growth within our previous full-year guidance," chief executive Johan Svanstrom said. "Our core membership remains stable with strong partner retention levels." Partner retention was 92% at the end of October, compared with 93% a year earlier.

Rightmove expects to return more than £400 million to shareholders between July 31, 2026 and July 31, 2027. About £125 million has gone back since July 31, made up of a £30 million interim dividend and £95 million of buybacks, and the company plans another £80 million of buybacks by the end of the year.

Scout24 Pushes Agentic Search

Scout24, which owns Germany's ImmoScout24, reported its results on November 4. Third-quarter revenue rose 19.7% to €198.2 million, or 10.1% excluding its Spanish business. The company now expects full-year revenue growth of about 18%, the top of its earlier 16% to 18% range, with Spain adding 7 to 8 percentage points.

Like Rightmove, Scout24 is seeing less money from new-build developers. It said growth in average revenue per user among professional customers slowed to 7.4% because developers were less active. It also said organic personnel costs fell further as it used more automation and AI, calling these early gains towards becoming an "AI-native organisation". It has started an AI assistant called Proppi in its Propstack agent software and added an AI application assistant to its top consumer membership tier.

"Our Agentic OS strategy is the right response to a market where AI is changing how people search and act," chief executive Ralf Weitz said. Scout24 will publish preliminary full-year results on February 25, 2027.