Rightmove Earnings Call: Growth, Cash Returns and AI Focus

Rightmove plc ((RTMVY)) has held its Q4 earnings call. Read on for the main highlights of the call.

Rightmove’s latest earnings call struck an upbeat tone on operational and financial delivery, even as management flagged a tougher near-term backdrop. Executives highlighted solid double-digit EPS growth, strong cash returns, and rapid progress in AI and data-led products, but tempered enthusiasm with caution on market hesitancy, New Homes weakness, and a more modest profit outlook for 2026.

Revenue and Profit Advance

Rightmove reported 2025 revenue up 9% year-on-year, with underlying operating profit also rising 9%, underscoring the resilience of its portal-led model. Underlying earnings per share grew an even faster 11%, reflecting buybacks and tight capital discipline despite heavier investment in people and technology.

Accelerated Cash Returns

Shareholder remuneration stepped up meaningfully, with a total of £220m returned in 2025 through £141m of buybacks and £79m of dividends, a 21% increase on the prior year. Management added fresh firepower with a new £90m share repurchase programme scheduled for the first half of 2026, signalling confidence in long-term cash generation.

Core Business Momentum

Agency revenues rose 9% to £305m and New Homes revenues also advanced 9% to £75m, showing that core segments are still growing despite market noise. Membership ticked up to 19,272, about 1% higher than December 2024, with Agency membership up 2% and retention at a robust 90%.

ARPA and Product Upsell Engine

Average revenue per advertiser increased by £97 to £1,621, and management stressed that 60% of this uplift was driven by product-led initiatives rather than just pricing. The company raised blended ARPA growth guidance for 2026 to £110–£120, suggesting further monetisation headroom across both Estate Agency and New Homes.

Strategic Growth Outperformance

Strategic growth areas were a standout, delivering about 25% revenue growth to £29.1m as diversification efforts gain traction. Commercial revenues climbed 13% to £15.3m, mortgages almost doubled with nearly 50% growth to £6.8m, and Rental Services, including Lead to Keys and ancillary products, surged 35%.

Audience Scale and Engagement

Time spent on the site reached 16.8 billion minutes, the second-highest level on record, underlining the platform’s central role in the U.K. property search journey. Over 85% of traffic came from direct and organic channels, while app users grew 11% and the platform captured 69 billion first-party signals for future data-driven products.

Execution and Product Velocity

Operationally, the group delivered more than 6,000 tech releases in 2025 and ended the year with 31 live strategic AI projects, four more than in November. Rightmove has tripled the number of data models embedded in its platform, and its Rightmove Plus tool logged 28 million sessions, highlighting growing professional user adoption.

Market Leadership and Trust

Rightmove’s portal-time share remains dominant, consistently above 70% on SimilarWeb and over 80% on Comscore, with December 2025 readings at 75% and 89% respectively. Third-party surveys of agents show record sentiment and a 1.7x trust differential versus main competitors, reinforcing the brand’s pricing power despite media noise.

Capital Efficiency and Cash Generation

The business remains highly cash generative, converting 107% of operating profit into cash while keeping capital expenditure low at £10m in 2025. CapEx is set to rise to around £16m in 2026, still under 4% of revenue, preserving the asset-light profile even as the company ramps up investment.

Employee Engagement and Hiring Plans

Workforce sentiment is strong, with 89% of employees describing Rightmove as a great place to work, which management links to product execution and innovation. The company plans targeted hiring of around 100 roles in 2026, focusing primarily on data, product, and engineering capabilities to support AI and platform enhancements.

Second-Half Slowdown

Management acknowledged a weaker second half in 2025, citing autumn budget uncertainty and broader market hesitancy that weighed on activity. As a result, they expect first-half 2026 growth to trail the full-year rate, with tough H1 comparatives and ongoing drag from the New Homes segment.

New Homes Supply Headwinds

The New Homes market remains challenged, with traditional developments falling sharply and hitting their lowest level since early 2018. Developers’ build rates are not expected to materially recover in the first half of 2026, limiting near-term upside in this revenue line despite strong underlying demand.

Rising Costs and Investment Burden

Underlying operating costs rose by £11m year-on-year, driven by a £4.6m, or 7%, increase in people costs and a £4m rise in technology expenditure. With more than 100 additional hires planned and about £12m of incremental post-capitalisation investment flagged for 2026, near-term margins will be held back by growth spending.

Tempered Profit Outlook

Rightmove guided to underlying operating profit growth of just 3%–5% in 2026, even as revenues rise faster, reflecting its decision to lean into investment. The group still expects to hold margins at or above 67%, but acknowledged that stepped-up spending will moderate near-term margin expansion in favour of longer-term gains.

Small but Growing Non-ARPA Streams

Management noted that non-ARPA Agency revenues, including initiatives such as Agent Accelerator and some rental insurance, are growing from a low base. These streams amount to roughly £3m and make the business less tied to simple ARPA times membership models, but they are not yet large enough to move the dial materially.

Perception, Competition and Noise

Executives addressed market commentary pointing to adversarial agent relations and a pending court case, which collectively contribute to reputational risk. They countered that independent survey data shows record agent satisfaction and a wide lead over competitors, suggesting a disconnect between headlines and day-to-day relationships.

AI Experiments and Uncertain Payoff

Rightmove is experimenting with new AI-led tools, including conversational search and integrations with popular chat applications, but these remain early-stage. Referral traffic from general AI platforms is still under 0.5%, and while conversational users show around three times higher lead propensity, management cautioned that long-term monetisation and causality are not yet clear.

Lean Cash Buffer After Buybacks

The company plans to fund ongoing buybacks from earnings, which will reduce cash reserves from around £43m to roughly £20m by midyear. Management argued that £20m is sufficient for working capital needs, but investors will note the lower cash cushion alongside continued shareholder distributions.

Guidance and Outlook

Rightmove reaffirmed its 2026 guidance, targeting group revenue growth of 8%–10%, about 1% core membership growth, and blended ARPA gains of £110–£120 with stronger pricing in New Homes. Strategic growth areas are expected to rise 20%–30%, underlying operating profit to advance 3%–5% with margins no lower than 67%, CapEx around £16m, and continued high cash conversion supporting a £90m buyback and ongoing dividends.

Rightmove’s earnings call painted a picture of a market leader willingly trading some near-term margin expansion for strategic investment in AI, data and new revenue streams. For investors, the story is one of solid growth, strong cash returns and entrenched market dominance, offset by cyclical New Homes weakness and a deliberately moderated profit trajectory in 2026.