‘Rightmove is my porn’ – the addiction to online property search

Katie Smith has had an addiction for as long as she can remember. Something she feels compelled to dozens of times a day.

The 30-year-old finds herself repeatedly opening the Rightmove app, despite the fact she has no intention of moving house anytime soon.

“Rightmove is my porn,” laughs Katie, from Stone, Staffordshire. “It’s like being a modern day peeping Tom,” she says, referring to the number of homes she looks inside, all from the comfort of her smartphone.

Last week, after a day trip to Knutsford, Cheshire, she spent the evening looking at all the houses for sale there – regardless of price. And during a recent weekend in London, she loved looking at “how expensive houses in Richmond are”, which was close to her hotel.

Property portals like Rightmove, Zoopla and On the Market are goldmines of user data about both homebuyers and sellers.

Zoopla told the BBC that 1,860 properties are viewed every minute on its website and app, while the figure is even higher for Rightmove – nearly 10,000 properties viewed per minute.

Rightmove recently rejected a fourth takeover bid by Rupert Murdoch’s REA Group, saying the latest £6.2bn offer undervalued the company, external and its future prospects, showing just how valuable the data it holds is.

The websites themselves acknowledge that not all their users may actually be looking to move home, so what is it that keeps people scrolling?