UK property marketplaces are in an AI arms race

Leading online property marketplaces in the UK are racing to integrate new AI features such as AI-enhanced search, style visualisation tools, and chatbot integrations.

Two of the biggest online property platforms in the UK, Rightmove and Zoopla, are competing fiercely to integrate more AI-powered features into their applications, as well as to surface properties listed on their platforms to users searching for properties through services such as ChatGPT.

Last week, Zoopla announced that it had signed an enterprise agreement with OpenAI, which will allow it to integrate more AI-powered tools into its platform and provide more detailed insights to buyers and sellers.

The agreement was accompanied by the launch of the Zoopla app in ChatGPT, which means listings on the platform are now shown to people using the AI service, improving discoverability. Zoopla said that AI currently represents a small share of property search traffic, but it aims to capture that growth alongside continuing to build out its own platform.

“While much of the market is focused on AI-powered search, we believe that’s only part of the opportunity,” said Zoopla CEO Paul Whitehead.

“The real impact comes from using AI to better understand consumer intent, connect the right buyers and sellers, and unlock more successful home sales for consumers and our customers.”

Despite its purported focus on refining its own platform, it is difficult not to see the announcement of a Zoopla ChatGPT as a direct response to Rightmove, which became the first UK property portal to launch a ChatGPT app in March 2026.

ChatGPT apps are accessible from within the ChatGPT platform by simply typing in “@Rightmove” or “@Zoopla” before a prompt. These apps allow users to discover properties across sale and rental directly within conversations with ChatGPT.

If left unchallenged by competing ChatGPT apps such as Zoopla’s, Rightmove was poised to corner the growing market of AI search by surfacing its own listings through its official app over others from platforms without their own integrations.

The competition between UK online property marketplaces has a clear leader in Rightmove, which enjoys near-monopolistic status with around 75-80% market share in property searches. Analysts have found this market dominance conferred a significant data advantage, which could only be amplified by cornering AI search through integrations with ChatGPT and other platforms.

AI features on property portals

Zoopla’s enterprise agreement with OpenAI covers the launch of a Zoopla app in ChatGPT, but it will also lead to more AI-driven features within the Zoopla property portal itself.

This is also an arena where Rightmove aims to outstrip its competition. In the past several months, the property portal has rolled out a suite of AI features aimed at improving the discoverability of properties and the usability of its marketplace.

Rightmove has made clear its mission to build an AI-powered property marketplace that continues to be the most-visited UK property platform.

The portal has collaborated with Gemini to offer a conversational search feature through its homepage, allowing buyers to speak to a chatbot about their ideal property rather than manually setting filters and search parameters.

It also previously launched an ‘AI Keywords’ tool that allowed searchers to use more specific keywords such as “exposed brick” or “river view” that surface appropriate properties through AI vision and text scanning of property images and listing details.

Another novel AI-powered feature available on Rightmove is ‘Style with AI’, which allows users to edit property listing images using AI prompts, changing decoration style, removing furniture, and more.

Zoopla’s ongoing OpenAI integration will allow it to better monitor and engage users on its platforms and launch new features designed at improving lead conversion, but in the AI arms race as in market share, it remains very much the underdog in the battle to be the top online UK property portal.

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