How to List a Property on Rightmove: A Complete Guide for UK Sellers and Agents

Rightmove is the UK’s largest property portal, receiving over 30 million visits every month and accounting for more than 80% of all time spent on property portals across the country. For anyone selling or letting a home in the UK, getting a property listed on Rightmove is not a nice-to-have it is the single most important step in reaching the widest possible pool of motivated buyers and tenants. This guide covers everything you need to know about how to list a property on Rightmove, from the legal requirements you must meet before marketing begins to the listing quality standards that separate well-performing properties from those that sit unseen.

Can You How to List a Property on Rightmove Directly?

One of the most common questions sellers ask is whether they can list a property on Rightmove themselves, without going through an agent. The short answer is no. Rightmove does not accept listings directly from private individuals. The portal works exclusively with registered estate agents and letting agents who hold an active Rightmove membership. This means that to get a How to List a Property on Rightmove, a seller must work with a licensed agent whether that is a traditional high street agent, a hybrid agent, or an online-only estate agent service.

This is an important distinction. Unlike classified platforms where anyone can post an advertisement, Rightmove operates as a professional trade portal. Every property that appears on the site has been submitted by an accredited agency. This structure maintains the quality and consistency of listings across the platform and gives buyers confidence in the information they are reading.

For sellers who want Rightmove exposure without a traditional full-service agency fee, a number of online estate agents now offer fixed-fee Rightmove listing packages. These services allow sellers to market independently while still meeting Rightmove’s requirement for an accredited agent to submit the listing.

What You Need Before Your Property Can Be Listed

Before an estate agent can upload your property to Rightmove and make it live, several pieces of information and documentation need to be in place. Skipping or delaying any of these will hold up the listing and, in some cases, create legal liability.

Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)

An EPC is a legal requirement for any property being marketed for sale or rent in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Under the Energy Performance of Buildings Regulations 2012, a valid EPC rating must appear in any property listing including on Rightmove, in window displays, and in any printed marketing material. The certificate must be commissioned before marketing begins, not at the point of offer or during conveyancing.

EPCs are valid for ten years from the date they were lodged. If your property was sold or let within the last decade and you still have a valid certificate, the same one can be used again provided no significant energy-related work has been carried out since. An accredited domestic energy assessor must carry out the assessment, and the resulting rating (on a scale of A to G) reflects how energy-efficient the property is.

For rental properties, the current legal minimum EPCv rating is E. The government has proposed raising this threshold to a minimum of C for all rental properties in England and Wales, with new tenancies expected to meet this standard by 2028 and all existing tenancies by 2030. Landlords planning any listing in the coming years should check their current rating against these upcoming requirements before instructing an agent.

The penalty for marketing a property without a valid EPC is £200 per listing. For agents, the regulatory exposure is higher, since the obligation is documented within their instructions. Getting the EPC sorted early removes one of the most common causes of listing delays.

Identity Verification and Anti-Money Laundering Checks

Before an agent takes you on as a client, they are legally required to verify your identity under Anti-Money Laundering legislation. You will need to provide photographic ID typically a driving license or passport along with a document confirming your current address, such as a recent utility bill or bank statement. This is not optional, and reputable agents will not proceed with a listing until these checks have been completed satisfactorily.

Proof of Ownership and Legal Status

For sales, your agent will need confirmation that you are the registered owner of the property and that there are no legal complications that would prevent the sale proceeding. This typically becomes relevant during the conveyancing process, but understanding the tenure whether the property is freehold or leasehold is also a mandatory disclosure requirement on Rightmove listings.

Material Information: How to List a Property on Rightmove

In recent years, How to List a Property on Rightmove has worked alongside the National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team to introduce expanded material information requirements for all UK listings. From 2026, listings must include a significantly wider set of property details than was previously required.

Material information that must now be included covers:

• Tenure: Whether the property is freehold, leasehold, or shared ownership. For leasehold properties, the remaining lease length must be stated, along with annual service charge and ground rent figures where applicable.
• Council tax band: The relevant local authority band for the property.
• Parking arrangements: Whether the property has a garage, allocated parking, permit zone parking, or no dedicated parking.
• Building safety: Any known issues relating to cladding, fire safety, or structural concerns must be disclosed.
• Flood risk: If the property is located in an area with known flood risk from rivers, sea, or groundwater, this information must be included.
• Utilities: The types of heating, water supply, drainage, and broadband connectivity available at the property.

These requirements exist to ensure that buyers and tenants have the information they need before requesting a viewing, reducing wasted appointments and improving the overall quality of enquiries that agents receive. For sellers, providing this information upfront also signals transparency, which builds trust with prospective buyers before they have even made contact.

Listings that are missing mandatory material information are increasingly likely to be flagged or deprioritised on the platform, so getting everything in order before submission is in everyone’s interest.

How to List a Property on Rightmove Process Works for Estate Agents

Once all the pre-marketing requirements are in place, your agent will prepare the listing and upload it to Rightmove through their professional portal. Estate agents and letting agents access Rightmove listings management through Rightmove Plus the member-only platform that handles everything from uploading new properties to tracking performance and managing enquiries.

Properties can be submitted to Rightmove in two ways:

Via a property software data feed: Most established agencies use integrated estate agency software such as Alto, Reapit, Jupix, or similar which automatically syncs property details to Rightmove in real time. Any changes made in the software are pushed through to the live listing without the agent needing to log into Rightmove Plus manually.

Manual upload through Rightmove Plus: Smaller agencies or those without integrated software upload listings directly through the Rightmove Plus interface. The agent opens the Property List, adds the new property, completes all required fields across the property setup tabs, and publishes it to make it live.

Once submitted, listings typically go live within 24 to 48 hours, subject to any compliance review. For properties where the EPC and all material information fields are complete, the process is usually straightforward.

What Makes a High-Performing Rightmove Listing

Getting a property onto Rightmove is one thing. Getting it to generate views, enquiries, and viewings is another. The difference between listings that perform well and those that attract little attention usually comes down to a handful of consistent factors.

Professional Photography

Rightmove’s own data shows that listings with professional photography receive 44% more views than those using amateur shots. The lead photograph the one that appears in search results is the single most important image in the entire listing. Buyers make a snap decision about whether to click through in roughly three seconds. A poorly lit, awkwardly framed interior shot will lose that moment every time.

Professional property photography uses wide-angle lenses to show rooms at their full size, correct white balance settings to represent natural light accurately, and post-processing to ensure consistency across all images. Images should be uploaded in a 3:2 aspect ratio at a minimum of 1024 pixels wide to display correctly on Rightmove’s desktop interface. Portraits or oddly cropped images will appear stretched or cut off.

The recommended number of photographs for a standard listing is between 10 and 20 images. Leading with the most impressive exterior shot or the most attractive internal space sets the tone for the rest of the listing. Rotating the lead image periodically even once during a longer marketing period can give an existing listing a fresh appearance and recover views that had started to plateau.

Floor Plans

A floor plan is the second most important element in a Rightmove listing, after photography. Research from Rightmove found that 37% of buyers said they would not enquire about a property without a floor plan. It gives prospective buyers a clear understanding of the layout, room proportions, and flow of the property before they commit time to a viewing and it filters out buyers whose needs the property cannot meet, which saves agents and vendors unnecessary appointments.

Floor plans should be uploaded to the dedicated floor plan tab within Rightmove, not added as a property photograph. Uploading them correctly means buyers can navigate between floors and zoom into the plan from the listing page. Rightmove recommends uploading floor plans at 900 x 900 pixels for the best display quality.

Property Description

A well-written description does more than list what a property has. It communicates the feel of the home and the lifestyle it offers. Rightmove’s guidance suggests that descriptions of 200 to 300 words perform best long enough to give meaningful detail, short enough not to overwhelm.

The first line of the description is visible in search results and is the one opportunity to say something that makes a buyer pause. Starting with “We are delighted to offer…” is a wasted opening. A line that immediately communicates the property’s standout quality its position, its renovation, its outdoor space, its proximity to something relevant is far more effective.

Where a property has a potential drawback that a buyer might notice a main road nearby, a short lease, a ground-floor position addressing it directly in the description is better than leaving it to be discovered at the viewing. A sentence that acknowledges the issue and reframes it with a genuine benefit (“while positioned on a well-connected main road, the property has been fitted with triple glazing throughout and benefits from a completely private south-facing rear garden”) is more persuasive than silence.

Key features those short bullet points that appear prominently near the top of the listing should priorities genuinely distinctive attributes. Number of bedrooms, bathrooms, and parking spaces are expected. Recent refurbishment, a new boiler, planning permission, or an unusually large plot are features that deserve to be highlighted.

Pricing Accuracy

Even the best-presented listing will underperform if the asking price is out of step with the local market. Overpriced properties attract fewer genuine enquiries, sit on Rightmove for longer, and tend to accumulate a visible history of price reductions which signals to buyers that the vendor has misjudged the market. Properties that have been reduced more than once are often perceived as problematic even when they are not.

Pricing from the outset at a level that reflects current comparable sold prices in the area gives a listing its best chance of generating early interest. The first two weeks after a listing goes live are typically the most active period, as buyers with saved searches and price alerts are notified immediately. A strong opening at an accurate price point captures that initial audience at its most engaged.

Featured Listings and Premium Listing Options

For properties that need additional exposure whether due to the nature of the property, a competitive local market, or a time-sensitive sale Rightmove offers enhanced visibility products through the Featured Property and Premium Listing options.

A Featured Property displays at the top of local search results with a blue banner. The property also appears again as a standard listing further down the same page, giving it twice the visibility within a single search. Rightmove estimates that featured properties receive double the page views of standard listings.

A Premium Listing enhances the appearance of the property within the search results page itself, displaying with a green banner, a larger ad format, and more images visible before a buyer clicks through. A custom sticker text can also be added to highlight a key feature such as “New Instruction,” “Price Reduced,” or “Virtual Tour Available.”

Both products are available through an agent’s Rightmove Plus account and are purchased as credits either as one-off purchases or monthly top-up subscriptions. For properties in competitive postcode areas, these options represent a targeted way to stand out at the most critical stage of the buyer journey.

Managing Your Listing Once It Is Live

A Rightmove listing is not a set-and-forget exercise. The performance data available through Rightmove Plus allows agents to monitor how a listing is doing on a week-by-week basis tracking views, email enquiries, and how the property compares to similar listings in the same area.

If a listing is underperforming against comparable properties, the Property Performance Report within Rightmove Plus will flag this clearly. The most common causes of underperformance are pricing, lead photograph quality, missing floor plan, and an insufficient number of images. Each of these can be corrected after a listing is live without the need for the property to be taken off the market and relisted.

Vendors receive regular updates from their agent on listing performance, typically in the form of a report generated from Rightmove Plus data. This gives sellers a clear and objective view of how their property is being received by the market information that is far more useful than an agent simply saying “things are quiet at the moment.”

At Reuterings, agents use this performance data actively throughout every sale to ensure listings are generating the right level of interest and that any issues are identified and resolved quickly rather than allowed to compound over weeks.

How Long Does It Take for a Property to Go Live on Rightmove?

Once an agent has submitted a fully complete listing with all mandatory fields filled, the EPC included, and photographs uploaded a property typically appears on Rightmove within 24 to 48 hours. In many cases it is faster, particularly for agencies using an integrated software data feed, where the listing goes live as soon as it is published in the agency’s own system.

The most common reason for delays is incomplete information. A missing EPC, an unfilled mandatory field, or an image that does not meet Rightmove’s technical specifications will hold up the submission until the issue is resolved. For sellers who want their property to appear on Rightmove quickly, the most effective step is to ensure the EPC is in place before the agent is instructed and to provide all requested property details promptly when asked.

Listing a Rental How to List a Property on Rightmove: Key Differences

The process for listing a rental How to List a Property on Rightmove follows the same broad steps as a sale listing, but with some additional considerations specific to the lettings market.

EPC requirements for rental properties are stricter than for sales. Currently, all privately rented properties in England and Wales must have a minimum EPC rating of E to be legally marketed. As noted earlier, this threshold is expected to rise to a minimum of C by 2028 for new tenancies and 2030 for all existing tenancies. Landlords should check their current EPC rating against these timelines and, where needed, plan any energy improvement works well in advance.

Letting agents listing rental properties through Rightmove Plus can now use the Tenancy Manager and Enquiry Manager tools to pre-qualify prospective tenants at the enquiry stage. Applicants can be asked to provide additional information about their situation and consent to a soft credit check before being put forward for a tenancy. This means agents can assess suitability earlier in the process and spend less time conducting viewings for applicants who do not meet the landlord’s requirements.

For letting agents managing large portfolios, the integration between Rightmove Plus and the Tenancy Manager workflow covering everything from initial enquiry through referencing, deposit collection, and move-in creates a single trackable process that reduces administrative time and supports compliance with current legislation, including the requirements introduced under the Renters’ Rights Act 2025.

Common Mistakes That Affect Rightmove Listing Performance

Understanding what not to do is as useful as knowing what to do well. These are the most frequent errors that result in properties underperforming on Rightmove:

• Launching at an inflated asking price. The initial weeks on Rightmove are when buyer interest is highest. An inaccurate opening price wastes that window.
• Using a poor quality or unrepresentative lead photograph. The thumbnail shown in search results is the entire first impression. A dark, cluttered, or poorly composed image loses clicks before the listing has had a chance to be read.
• Missing floor plan. Over a third of buyers will not enquire about a property without one. Its absence is often perceived as the agent or vendor having something to hide.
• Incomplete material information. Listings without tenure, council tax band, or required property details are increasingly flagged on Rightmove and may not display correctly in filtered searches.
• Not refreshing the listing. A listing that has sat unchanged for weeks can look stale. Updating the description, rotating the lead image, or adjusting the key features gives search algorithms and returning buyers a reason to look again.
• Ignoring the performance data. Rightmove Plus provides clear, actionable data on how every listing is performing. Agents who check this data regularly and act on it consistently achieve faster results for their clients than those who upload and wait.

Summary: How to List a Property on Rightmove

How to List a Property on Rightmove successfully requires more than simply uploading a few photographs and a description. It involves legal compliance specifically around EPCs and material information disclosure careful presentation through professional photography, accurate floor plans and well-written descriptions, thoughtful pricing, and active management once the listing is live.

For sellers and landlords, the most important decision in this process is choosing an agent who treats Rightmove not as a passive notice board but as a data-driven marketing channel. The tools available within Rightmove Plus give experienced agents a clear view of what is working and what needs to change and the agents who use those tools consistently are the ones whose clients see the fastest, most successful outcomes.