Joe Marshall · 31 May 2026

UK Property Search Trends [May 2026]: What Britain's Home-Buying Searches Reveal

We pulled Semrush data on UK property search. Rightmove takes over 80% of portal demand, the priciest clicks are in conveyancing and equity release, and property is the calmest, least seasonal vertical in search. Here is what it means for property brands in 2026.

Property is a vertical where a single search can be worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, and where the search behaviour looks nothing like retail or travel. We pulled Semrush data across the portals, the research terms and the transaction services that make up the UK property journey. Three things stand out: one portal owns the market, the money is in the services around the move rather than the listings, and demand is remarkably steady all year round.

The biggest and fastest-growing property brands in UK search

The 10 biggest property brands in UK search

UK property search is the most concentrated market we measure: Rightmove alone commands four-fifths of the demand across the leading portals and agents.

#	Brand	UK searches / mo	Share of top-10 demand
1	Rightmove	11.1M	80% of top-10 demand
2	Zoopla	1.8M	13% of top-10 demand
3	OpenRent	368K	3% of top-10 demand
4	SpareRoom	165K	1% of top-10 demand
5	OnTheMarket	110K	<1% of top-10 demand
6	Savills	90K	<1% of top-10 demand
7	Purplebricks	90K	<1% of top-10 demand
8	Foxtons	33K	<1% of top-10 demand
9	Knight Frank	27K	<1% of top-10 demand
10	PrimeLocation	22K	<1% of top-10 demand

Branded search volume, UK, Semrush (May 2026). Share is each brand’s percentage of the combined monthly search volume of the ten brands shown.

The fastest-growing property brands in UK search

Property search cooled across the board as the market stayed tight. Only lettings platform Goodlord grew, while rental-led names OpenRent and SpareRoom held demand best as the big sales portals slipped.

#	Brand	UK searches / mo	12-month search trend
1	Goodlord	27K	+6% over 12 months
2	OpenRent	368K	-5% over 12 months
3	SpareRoom	165K	-5% over 12 months
4	Zoopla	1.8M	-6% over 12 months
5	PropertyPal	135K	-19% over 12 months
6	OnTheMarket	110K	-22% over 12 months

Change in branded search demand over the trailing 12 months, UK, Semrush. Ranked by trajectory; arrows show the direction of travel.

One portal, almost all the demand

The UK property search market is extraordinarily concentrated. "Rightmove" pulls around 11.1 million searches a month, dwarfing "Zoopla" at 1.83 million, with OnTheMarket and Purplebricks trailing far behind at around 100,000 each.

Share of search demand across the four main property portals (by monthly search volume). Source: Semrush, UK database, May 2026.

Our take: when more than four in five portal searches go to a single name, the demand is effectively pre-aggregated by Rightmove. For agents, that makes your presence on the portal non-negotiable, but it also makes your own brand and local organic visibility the only demand you actually own. The opportunity is to be the agent people search for by name and find first locally, rather than competing for attention inside someone else's marketplace.

Research happens on Google, not just the portals

Plenty of the journey still runs through Google directly. "Mortgage calculator" is huge at 550,000 searches a month, a sign of how much of property search is really affordability anxiety. "Houses for sale" sits at 165,000, with "sold house prices" and "stamp duty" both at around 90,000 as buyers do their due diligence.

Monthly UK Google search volume for property research and transaction terms (portals shown separately). Source: Semrush, UK database, May 2026.

Our take: these research terms are a content goldmine, and they sit upstream of the transaction. The brands that answer the affordability and process questions, what stamp duty will cost, what a street last sold for, how the mortgage maths works, earn trust long before anyone books a viewing. That is exactly the kind of trust-led content strategy we have written about for property investment.

The money is in the move, not the listing

Listings are free to search, but the services around a move command some of the priciest clicks in UK search. "Conveyancing" tops the list at £7.82 a click, with "equity release" at £4.68 and "estate agents near me" at £3.79. Remortgaging and mortgages follow close behind.

Average cost-per-click on Google for high-value property and transaction terms. Source: Semrush, UK, May 2026.

Our take: at these prices the campaign has to be measured to the penny. A conveyancer or broker paying nearly £8 a click cannot afford a leaky enquiry form or untracked phone calls, which is why proper tracking and attribution is the difference between a profitable channel and a money pit. Local intent ("near me") carries a real premium too, so location-tight targeting is essential.

Property is the calm vertical

After the violent seasonality of retail and travel, property is a study in calm. Demand for the core buying and research terms barely moves across the year, with only a gentle spring lift and a brief December dip as the market pauses for Christmas.

Composite property-search demand (houses for sale, property for sale, estate agents, mortgage calculator, houses to rent), indexed to each term’s 12-month peak. Note the shallow swing. Source: Semrush, UK, Mar 2025 – Feb 2026.

Our take: a steady demand curve changes the strategy. There is no single peak to prepare for, so property marketing rewards consistency, an always-on presence that compounds over months rather than a burst of activity timed to a season. The brands that show up reliably, every month, are the ones that are front of mind when a life event finally triggers a move.

What this means for property brands in 2026

The UK property search market rewards a different playbook. Rightmove owns the aggregated demand, so build the brand and local visibility you can actually own. The research terms sit upstream of the sale, so win them with genuinely useful content. The transaction services carry premium clicks, so measure relentlessly. And because demand is steady, consistency beats campaigns. If you want help turning this into an always-on property plan, get in touch.

This is part of Clicky Trends, our ongoing research into what the UK is actually searching for, industry by industry. See also our breakdown of UK travel search trends.

All search volume, cost-per-click and trend figures are from Semrush’s UK database, pulled in May 2026. The twelve-month trend window runs from March 2025 to February 2026, with each series indexed to its own peak.