London, June 30, 2026, 15:07 BST
- Rightmove was up about 0.1% at 442.20p in London afternoon trade, while the FTSE 250 was up 0.39%.
- The company bought 160,000 shares on Monday at a volume-weighted average price of 441.731p, almost level with Tuesday’s quoted price.
- Fresh housing data is weaker: Zoopla said June sales agreed were 7% lower year on year, and the Bank of England said May mortgage approvals fell to 56,200.
Rightmove plc (LON:RMV) was trading little changed on Tuesday, but the better story for investors was not the tick-by-tick move. The property portal is buying stock at almost the same level as the market price, just as UK housing data points to fewer deals for the agents and developers that pay for its platform.
| London afternoon tape | Latest |
|---|---|
| Rightmove last trade | 442.20p |
| Rightmove day range | 435.30p-445.00p |
| Rightmove change vs previous close | +0.14% |
| Rightmove market value | £3.28 bln |
| FTSE 250 | 23,103.46 |
| FTSE 250 change | +0.39% |
Rightmove said on Monday it bought 160,000 shares at 441.731p each through UBS AG London Branch. The purchase cost about £707,000 and cut shares in issue, excluding treasury shares, to 745.56 million. On Friday, it bought 165,000 shares at 429.117p. The two trading days took 325,000 shares out of issue, about 0.044% of the latest share count, for roughly £1.41 million.
The scale is small by itself, but the run-rate matters before the July update. Rightmove committed to a £90 million buyback to be executed between March 2 and July 31. At Tuesday’s 442.20p price, £90 million would equal about 20.4 million shares, or around 2.7% of the latest post-buyback share count.
The share-count point is not cosmetic for Rightmove. In 2025, the company said basic earnings per share rose 15%, while buybacks helped reduce the weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue by 2%. Revenue rose 9%, total average revenue per advertiser rose 6%, and total membership rose only 1%, which makes pricing power more important than customer growth.
| Housing and demand gauges | Latest reading |
|---|---|
| Rightmove June asking prices | -0.6% month on month |
| Rightmove June asking prices | -0.5% year on year |
| Rightmove June sales agreed | -6% year on year |
| Zoopla June sales agreed | -7% year on year |
| Zoopla buyer enquiries | -15% year on year |
| BoE May mortgage approvals | 56,200 |
| BoE April mortgage approvals | 66,000 |
Rightmove’s own June house price index said asking prices fell 0.6% in the month, the biggest June fall in 14 years, while sales agreed were 6% lower than a year earlier. Colleen Babcock, a Rightmove property expert, said: “It’s unusual to see a price fall of this size in June.” She also said: “Setting a competitive asking price from the outset is key.”
Zoopla’s June index, published Tuesday and written by Richard Donnell, its executive director of research, put sales agreed down 7% and buyer enquiries down about 15%. Donnell wrote: “Mortgage rates remain the biggest factor shaping the market.” Zoopla expects sales to finish 6%-8% below 2025, at about 1.1 million completions. Zoopla
The Bank of England data gives the slowdown a financing line. Net mortgage approvals for house purchases fell to 56,200 in May from 66,000 in April, below the previous six-month average of 63,300 and the lowest since December 2023. Net mortgage borrowing fell to £2.9 billion from £4.4 billion.
The stock also has a new index base. FTSE Russell said Rightmove would leave the FTSE 100 and enter the FTSE 250 after the June review, with the change taking effect from the start of trading on June 22. That puts the company in a more domestic mid-cap screen at the same time as housing volumes are softening.
Rightmove’s answer is product spend, AI tools and cash returns. In February, Chief Executive Johan Svanstrom said: “We have entered 2026 with confidence in our performance.” The company said 2026 would bring accelerated investment in consumer and partner innovation, AI-powered operations and new growth areas. Morningstar
Investors get the next company print on July 31, when Rightmove has scheduled half-year results. The line items to watch are agency ARPA, new homes membership, mortgage product revenue, buyback spend and whether the housing slowdown has started to show up in partner spend.
