Rightmove trialling new Renovation Cost Estimator

Rightmove, the UK’s largest property platform, is trialling a new renovation tool with home-movers, designed to help buyers understand the potential renovation costs of a property.

The new ‘Renovation Cost Estimator’ tool encourages home-movers to spend more time considering the renovation potential of homes listed on Rightmove. It aims to provide agents with more high-intent leads, as well as a new opportunity to highlight the improvement potential of their listings.

The Renovation Cost Estimator uses AI to read a property’s floorplan and estimate renovation costs room-by-room, with a focus on kitchens and bathrooms, the most popular areas for refurbishment.

The tool supports three finish levels, from basic to high-end, giving buyers flexibility to explore different budgets and plan with confidence.

Estimates are based on actual room dimensions and local labour and material rates, supplied by BuildPartner, a leading data provider for renovation and extension costs.

The Renovation Cost Estimator builds on Rightmove’s existing suite of renovation tools designed to help buyers unlock a property’s full potential.

These include:

• The Renovation Calculator, which shows you the value a renovation could add to a home
• The Extension Explorer feature, which highlights the potential to extend a home using planning permission likelihood data and build costs
• Style with AI, an experiment which uses artificial intelligence to help buyers visualise interior design ideas tailored to each room.

Together, these innovations support more confident decision-making and help agents showcase the possibilities within their listings.

Tarah Lourens, Chief Technology and Operations Officer at Rightmove says, “We’re excited to trial another innovation on our platform, this time building out further our suite of renovation tools for serious home-hunters.

“By using technology to provide tailored renovation estimates based on real room sizes, we’re helping agents connect with serious buyers who are actively planning their next move.”

The Renovation Cost Estimator trial is now live on selected resale listings via the renovation potential tab on Rightmove.

ENDS

Notes to editors:

• The Renovation Cost Estimator trial is available on resale property listings with one floorplan and up to and including three bedrooms
• It excludes character properties (e.g., lodges, houseboats), new homes, and rentals
• Users must sign in or register to see the full cost estimates
• BuildPartner combines the latest technology with live data from thousands of users on its platform to provide instant, accurate and understandable costs for construction

About Rightmove

• Rightmove has the UK’s largest selection of properties for sale and to rent, adds more listings than anyone else, and over 80% of all time spent on property portals is on Rightmove
• Rightmove’s vision is to give everyone the belief that they can make their move by giving people the best place to turn and return to for access to tools and expertise to make it happen
• Users can search Rightmove for residential resale, new homes, rentals, built for rent, commercial property and overseas properties. Rightmove also provide an extensive range of tools and information assisting their home moving journey, including but not limited to: local sold prices, online property valuation, agent visit requests, moving guides, mortgage in principle certification, renovation calculator, extension explorer, home services for renters like utilities, media and insurance, school information, moving guides and sustainability information
• Partners (Rightmove’s customers) include the following key groups: estate agents, letting agents, new homes developers, rental operators, commercial property operators, overseas property agents, financial services operators and home services providers for insurance, utilities and media
• Using the UK’s largest housing datasets, we issue a number of regular reports to track housing market indicators: our monthly House Price Index (established 2002), quarterly Rental Trends Tracker (established 2015), weekly Mortgage Rates Tracker (established 2023) and quarterly Commercial Insights Tracker (established 2024). Historical data is available on request
• Founded in 2000, Rightmove listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2006 and is a member of the FTSE 100 index