For years, the property search game has been dominated by the big three: Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket. But now a fourth player has entered the arena – one that doesn’t even call itself a portal. That new contender is artificial intelligence.

Buyers are already experimenting with AI chatbots, which are instantly pulling results not just from the portals, but from agents’ own websites. That’s the real game-changer. AI doesn’t care whether stock sits on a portal. It goes wherever the content lives.

For 20 years, portals have held the upper hand because they aggregate the stock. But if AI can do the aggregating faster and smarter, then the rules of engagement shift. Suddenly, agents may get a look-in again – if their websites and social channels are properly structured. This is a turning point.

To their credit, the portals aren’t ignoring AI. Rightmove has been trialling an AI-powered location tool while Zoopla is leaning heavily into ‘smart tags’ that pull lifestyle attributes from listings. I’ve heard that OnTheMarket, under CoStar, will be investing in over 100 AI initiatives throughout 2026, from lead filtering and AVM improvements, to machine vision and fraud detection.

But these are all siloed efforts. None of the portals are collaborating to build an industry-wide system that could counter the rise of AI search engines. The danger for the portals is that if they don’t move together to counter the threat, they could end up in the same position that newspapers found themselves in with Fish4. They had the content, they had the audience, but they clung to the old model while the world moved on.

Meanwhile, we’re seeing huge investment coming into OnTheMarket from its new owners CoStar in its fight for consumer attention. We’ve already seen this battle emerging overseas — CoStar’s acquisition of Australia’s Domain is explicitly aimed at challenging REA’s market dominance, and in the U.S. its Homes.com arm is aggressively pushing into Zillow territory.

Here, OnTheMarket has gone from ‘nice to have’ to a serious contender. Under CoStar, it now boasts stock levels to rival Zoopla, record lead generation and innovations like its Valuation Lead Manager that alerts you when a property on your own CRM is back in the market with a competitor.

Zoopla, meanwhile, looks stuck in no-man’s land, with whispers about a possible sale and no clear direction. And then there’s Rightmove. Once untouchable, now looking vulnerable. Its share price has fallen off a cliff – down from 827p in early August to just 523p as I write. That’s a 36% drop in under six months. Why? Because even though it is investing in AI, it’s doing so within the straitjacket of City expectations. When you’ve promised investors a 70%+ profit margin, how much room is left for bold, transformative innovation?

For agents, this isn’t a threat – it’s an opportunity. If AI can bring buyers straight to your website, why wouldn’t you make sure you’re ready? Why wouldn’t you invest in descriptions that highlight lifestyle features, in structured pages that AI can index, and in launch strategies that showcase quality buyers over speed?

At Spicerhaart, we’ve set up SAIL – the Spicerhaart AI Lab – to explore all our AI opportunities. We’re embracing AI, not fearing it, and asking how it can work for our agents and our customers. Because the public don’t just want to be clumped into one giant portal. Increasingly, they want personalised journeys and curated matches.

That’s what AI can deliver. And that’s why I believe AI isn’t just the fourth portal, it may be the only one that truly levels the playing field between agents and platforms.

Portals set to go head to head in Christmas TV advertising campaigns