A Hampshire letting agent has launched a free property portal that has already drawn more than 9,000 subscribers and stitched together a network of listings from over 6,600 estate and letting agencies across the UK, in a direct challenge to the established players that dominate online property advertising.
Find My Move, founded by letting agent Mark Vine and housing professional Chris Moss, gives agents and landlords a cost-free route to market their stock while connecting them with prospective tenants and buyers nationwide. It arrives at a moment when many agencies are openly questioning whether the price of a portal listing still stacks up.
The platform currently carries more than 58,000 rental properties and over 435,000 homes for sale, with subscriber numbers climbing by around 3,000 every month. More than half of registered users are actively searching for a home, while over 200,000 people have visited the site in the past three months.
The idea grew out of Vine’s own experience running a letting agency and a recurring conversation with peers who were uneasy about the rising cost of advertising homes through traditional portals. That frustration is well documented across the sector: industry analysis suggests Rightmove’s fees are on course to outpace agents’ earnings for a third year running, with portal costs now swallowing a growing slice of commission income.
“After six years in lettings, I found myself having the same conversations with agents time and time again,” Vine said. “Many felt they were paying increasingly large sums simply to advertise housing stock at a time when businesses across the sector are facing growing pressures.
“We wanted to create a platform that offered agents and landlords another route to market without the significant costs often associated with property advertising. The response so far has been extremely encouraging and gives us confidence that there is genuine demand for a different approach.
“With more than 9,000 subscribers already on the platform and thousands more joining every month, we believe Find My Move can become a valuable additional channel for agents, landlords and property seekers alike.”
Unlike the incumbent portals, Find My Move is free for agents and landlords to use. The business intends to generate revenue through advertising opportunities and commercial partnerships rather than subscription fees, a model that mirrors the rethink under way across the industry as agents reassess how much of their budget should sit with a single listing site.
That pressure is being felt against a backdrop of wider upheaval in the rental market, from the Renters’ Rights Act to a tightening tax landscape, all of which are squeezing margins for agents and landlords alike. For investors weighing how to keep costs in check, the question of where, and how much, to spend on marketing has rarely been sharper.
Chris Moss said: “Our immediate priority is to continue growing the number of agents, landlords and property seekers using the platform across the UK.
“We’ve created Find My Move to be accessible, straightforward and beneficial for everyone involved in the property journey. The scale of engagement we’ve seen already shows there is an appetite for new ideas and alternative ways of connecting people with property opportunities.”
The founders say the platform will remain free for agents and landlords for the foreseeable future as they concentrate on expanding the business and building awareness throughout the sector. A free listing channel could prove particularly useful for the new wave of professional landlords now taking a record share of the rental market, many of whom are running larger portfolios and watching every line of cost.
It also lands alongside a growing armoury of tools designed to help landlords market and manage their properties more cheaply, from rent collection software to compliance trackers, as the sector hunts for efficiency wherever it can find it. With sweeping reform now reshaping the lettings landscape under the Renters’ Rights Act, cost discipline has become a defining theme for agents and investors.
Longer term, the founders say they want Find My Move to play a wider role in broadening access to housing, working with agents, landlords, local authorities and other housing stakeholders to help more people find suitable accommodation.
