Rightmove has announced the acquisition of HomeViews for a cash consideration of £8m.

HomeViews, a community of verified resident reviews of property developments, helps prospective residents make more informed decisions about where to live, as well as providing rental operators and developers with a powerful research and marketing tool to help them better understand their residents’ experiences.

Its data platform, HomeViews Pro, is also used by the build-to-rent industry to better understand resident experiences and trends across the sector.

Rightmove is the UK’s largest real estate property portal and is listed on the London Stock Exchange as a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

HomeViews CEO, Rory Cramer, will continue to lead the HomeViews team following the acquisition, and he commented: “Joining Rightmove gives us a brilliant opportunity to expand our services for our partners and other stakeholders.

“Rightmove’s brand leadership, its ongoing digital and product innovation, and the breadth and depth of its reach across the UK property market make this a fantastic combination. We can’t wait to start working together to leverage those benefits for the rapidly expanding build to rent market.”

CEO of Rightmove, Johan Svanstrom, added: “The HomeViews team has built an impressive platform that gives consumers additional useful information to make decisions. It also provides valuable feedback for industry operators, especially in the build-to-rent sector, which is an exciting and fast-growing segment of the UK property market.

“This acquisition provides Rightmove with yet another opportunity to further enrich our market-leading property information set for UK consumers and to create new and effective relationship tools for our build to rent operator partners. We’re very excited to have Rory and the entire HomeViews team onboard.”

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