{"id":1351,"date":"2025-04-27T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-27T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merlinscove.com\/?p=1351"},"modified":"2025-04-27T08:05:50","modified_gmt":"2025-04-27T08:05:50","slug":"how-rightmove-became-the-argos-catalogue-for-adults","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.merlinscove.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/27\/how-rightmove-became-the-argos-catalogue-for-adults\/","title":{"rendered":"How Rightmove became \u2018The Argos catalogue for adults\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\"\u2018We\u2019re\t<\/div>
People are casually browsing Rightmove with no intention of buying a house (Picture: Metro\/ Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018My husband thinks I\u2019m a tad unhinged,\u2019 says Georgia Lewis, 49. \u2018When I should be working, he’s caught me on Rightmove<\/a> and asks: “What are you looking at now? Oh more property<\/a> porn.”‘<\/p>\n

Although Georgia has no intention of selling her London<\/a> home anytime soon, she admits to scrolling through property websites at least a few times per week. <\/p>\n

\u2018I live a very rich fantasy life when it comes to houses<\/a> I\u2019m never going to buy,\u2019 she tells Metro<\/strong>. \u2018It\u2019s a bit of daydreaming, something I do in my downtime, or when I\u2019m waiting for the bus or the tube<\/a>.’<\/p>\n

She\u2019s not the only one. In a recent TikTok<\/a> video, American content creator Lisa Dollan, aka Yorkshire Peach, who relocated from Georgia, USA to Leeds<\/a>, was confused to learn that her British husband and friends casually browse the site for fun. ‘Why are you all looking at houses? I don’t get it,’ she said.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
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@yorkshirepeach<\/a> <\/p>\n

Where yall going \ud83d\ude2d #americanintheuk<\/a><\/p>\n

\u266c original sound – Yorkshire Peach<\/a> <\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

\u2018Yeah, we\u2019re all on Rightmove,\u2019 was the consensus left by nearly 10,000 commenters. One user described it as \u2018the adult version of circling toys in the Argos catalogue\u2019, while others admitted to searching for million-pound homes they\u2019d never be able to afford, just for the thrill of it.<\/p>\n

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Last year, Rightmove swallowed up 80% of all consumer time spent on UK property portals, with almost 9,400 property views every minute. For many, browsing the site has become a habit or an escape from daily life.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\"Georgia\t<\/div>
Georgia says she’ll look at Rightmove whenever she has a bit of downtime (Picture: Georgia Lewis)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Georgia adds: \u2018I tend to look at houses that we could realistically one day buy. I\u2019m a realistic dreamer,’ she says. \u2018But I\u2019ve always wanted to live in Greece. I look at houses in Corfu, Crete and Rhodes, and I totally picture myself there.<\/p>\n

\u2018I put in the search parameters for the dream house. It would be \u201cX\u201d number of bedrooms, more than one bathroom, and I will go into granular detail – I really want a utility room or a wall oven.\u2019<\/p>\n

Georgia also finds her habit reassuring. \u2018I find it comforting that if we had to sell our house for whatever reason, we could just up and leave and pay cash up north.\u2019<\/p>\n

Anya Griffiths, 25, only bought her one-bedroom property in York last year together with her partner, but she spends at least once a week on Rightmove imagining her potential future. <\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\"Anya\t<\/div>
Anya uses Rightmove to imagine her potential future (Picture: Anya Griffiths)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Like Georgia, she also looks at homes she might be able to purchase one day. \u2018I\u2019m not looking at mansions that are millions of pounds. What I enjoy about it is the feasibility of what\u2019s out there.\u2019<\/p>\n

She tends to be quite pragmatic in her searches and sets herself \u2018semi-realistic parameters\u2019. She adds: \u2018The rationale in my head is: within the next 10 years, maybe I could live in a property like this.\u2019<\/p>\n

Working in academia, Anya browses properties close to York University or even filters her searches to have a garden that her cat might enjoy. Still, she adds: \u2018It\u2019s years off being my actual lifestyle’.<\/p>\n

Why do we like looking at property websites so much?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

There are several reasons why people spend time browsing online property sites, Catherine Jansonn-Boyd, a professor of consumer psychology, tells Metro<\/strong>.  <\/p>\n

For many, it\u2019s \u2018pure curiosity’, as people will search for properties they simple want to get a look inside of. \u2018Often people will look at houses in the nearby area where they live, or maybe that they\u2019ve walked past. It\u2019s a bit like spying,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n

This curiosity can become addictive to some. \u2018It\u2019s almost like playing a game. You\u2019re kind of hooked on it after a while. You start to challenge yourself mentally and think, maybe I could do this or live here.<\/p>\n

\u2018It takes you away from reality. It\u2019s pure escapism.\u2019<\/p>\n

It’s possible to get a dopamine rush from searching, similar to the high you might get from retail therapy. \u2018It\u2019s quite common with people who are shopping for things, even if they are window shopping,\u2019 she explains.<\/p>\n

Others will browse the site for inspiration.\u00a0Catherine explains: \u2018It might be better than going online and looking at general pictures. Here, you know the layout of the house. You get much more detail.\u2019<\/p>\n

To keep people hooked, many estate agents will make their listing \u2018unusually appealing\u2019 and brighten the colour of their advertised pictures, to catch attention from viewers and prolong their focus.\u2019<\/p>\n

What does our Rightmove obsession mean for the property market?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

While your Rightmove habit might seem harmless, it can actually have a real world impact.<\/p>\n

Adam Day, head of estate agents eXp UK, tells Metro<\/strong>: \u2018It drives up the stats for the likes of Rightmove, who can legitimately claim they see certain levels of traffic, even if only a proportion of this traffic is genuine, which then gives them the foundation required to drive up their fees for estate agents advertising homes on the site.\u2019<\/p>\n

He adds that this could slow down the market. \u2018Many sellers will enter the market at an over-optimistic price point and, if they get a great deal of views during the initial weeks of listing, they may feel that they have a chance of selling.<\/p>\n

\u2018However, after a number of weeks with little to no viewing requests, they are then forced to reduce their asking price. Had they not seen a strong level of \u201cinterest\u201d from those simply browsing, they would have made their decision earlier, helping them to secure a buyer at an appropriate market value at a greater speed.\u2019<\/p>\n

Even if people are just browsing Rightmove for fun and not seriously looking to buy, estate agents still find it worthwhile to pay to advertise properties on the site. Adam explains that listing on their own website won\u2019t \u2018attract the same level of footfall\u2019 as Rightmove does. <\/p>\n

The dominance Rightmove has in the property market has led to the site driving up its prices \u2018considerably and consistently over the years\u2019. Adam adds: \u2018The platform has drawn a great deal of criticism from estate agents who feel they have seen coats soar.<\/p>\n

\u2018Unfortunately for agents, they have little option but to stomach these costs due to the power that Rightmove holds within the market, as failing to do so could not only reduce their performance but also deter customers from engaging with them.\u2019<\/p>\n

Do you have a story to share?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Get in touch by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@Metro.co.uk<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

People are casually browsing Rightmove with no intention of buying a house (Picture: Metro\/ Getty) \u2018My husband thinks I\u2019m a tad unhinged,\u2019 says Georgia Lewis, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1353,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-property"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.merlinscove.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.merlinscove.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.merlinscove.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.merlinscove.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.merlinscove.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1351"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.merlinscove.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1357,"href":"http:\/\/www.merlinscove.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1351\/revisions\/1357"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.merlinscove.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.merlinscove.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.merlinscove.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.merlinscove.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}