Rightmove vs Zoopla: A Two-Speed Market

Why Rightmove's traffic lead has proven durable

Every year since OntheMarket's launch in 2015, the UK property industry has debated whether Rightmove's dominance was finally under threat. Every year, Rightmove has ended the period with approximately the same 80% share of residential property search traffic. The 2024 entry of CoStar Group — via its acquisition of OntheMarket for £99M — represents the most capitalised and strategically coherent challenge to that dominance yet. And yet, at the time of GPPI's 2025 assessment, the traffic gap remains.

The more interesting story is not whether Rightmove will be disrupted — it is what Zoopla has done with its position as the permanent number two. Zoopla, under Silver Lake's private ownership since 2018, has made a deliberate product bet: rather than spend to close Rightmove's traffic gap (a war it cannot win on advertising spend alone), it has built a data and SaaS layer that creates agent retention independent of listing reach.

Zoopla's product bet: data depth over traffic parity

Three product decisions define Zoopla's 2025 competitive position. First, Hometrack — the automated valuation model it acquired and integrated — provides AVMs to mortgage lenders, surveyors, and property professionals, creating B2B data revenue entirely decoupled from listing volumes. Second, MyHome — a homeowner tracking platform showing property value estimates, local sold prices, and neighbourhood data — generates a consumer return-visit mechanic that pure search portals lack. Third, Alto — a legacy estate agent CRM product — creates workflow integration for a subset of agents that makes Zoopla stickier as a subscription regardless of traffic rankings.

Together, these products create a 'Zoopla ecosystem' that is harder to cancel than a simple listing subscription. An agent running Alto to manage their workflow, relying on Hometrack for valuations, and using MyHome leads as a vendor acquisition tool has Zoopla embedded into their operation — not just their marketing spend.

The CoStar variable

CoStar Group's acquisition of OntheMarket in February 2024, followed by a reported commitment to invest hundreds of millions in its UK portal operations, is the most consequential development in the UK portal market since Zoopla's formation. The US precedent — where CoStar's Homes.com grew from near-zero to a credible number-two US portal position through sustained capital investment — demonstrates that CoStar has both the appetite and the playbook for long-cycle portal market displacement.

But the UK market differs from the US in one critical structural respect: Rightmove's subscription model means agents pay for access, not per-lead. Switching from Rightmove to an alternative requires agents to be convinced that an alternative platform delivers comparable vendor-facing marketing reach — not just lead volume. OntheMarket's Early Bird listing exclusivity (24 hours before Rightmove and Zoopla) is the most credible consumer-facing hook CoStar has inherited. Whether it scales into meaningful traffic share shifts is the defining question for UK portal watchers in 2025–2026.

Implications for operators and investors

For estate agents, the practical calculus has not changed materially in 2025: Rightmove remains mandatory, Zoopla remains the default number two with genuine data value, and OntheMarket is a monitored third option. Agents watching CoStar's investment cadence in OntheMarket should treat a sustained marketing spend (above £50M/year) as a signal that a genuine dual-listing pressure point may emerge.

For investors, Rightmove's LSE listing (RMV) remains one of the highest-margin portal investments available. The failed REA Group approach in 2024 at £5.6 billion demonstrated that Rightmove's board values independence and that global portal groups see significant strategic value in the asset. Zoopla's private status under Silver Lake makes it less accessible to public market investors but its data and SaaS layer makes it structurally more defensible than a pure traffic platform.