What's the best property search engine in the UK?

Are you looking to buy, rent or sell a house? When it comes to searching for your next property you will usually begin with a search engine to filter down the results. But what are the best property search engines in the UK? Check out our top 5 below.

The property market in the UK is a thriving sector, with demands high and new builds finished daily. As a result, there are numerous property search engines to choose from online. The search engine portals have become so popular, that peering through a window of an estate agency office is becoming a thing of the past.

When we look for a property, the obvious place to start is Rightmove - the UK’s largest and most visited property portal. Even if you are struggling to find a suitable home on this portal, it gives you a rough idea of what you can get for your money depending on the location.

Rightmove also offers a free app for smartphone users, which is well worth getting hold of if you are proactively looking for your next home.

Features such as property maps, school information and a mortgage calculator can be found on Rightmove, taking into account key information people search for.

Zoopla is another big property portal offering useful resources such as local information and community tools. For example, Zoopla allows you to track house price fluctuations, so you know whether you’re getting a bargain or not. 

There are more filters on Zoopla to narrow down the results, you can even dictate how long you are willing to commute to work, and it will then bring up the appropriate properties - valuable information that can easily be forgotten.

With OnTheMarket you will find hundreds of properties which can be filtered down into four different sections. It is one of the best search engines if you are a student or looking for special properties such as farms or overseas.

If you would like instant property information, they also offer property alerts with property news so you can stay up to date with what’s going on in the market.

If you are looking for a new build, Smart New Homes list new developments available for sale across the UK.

One of the main incentives of this search engine is it offers help with different methods of buying a new home, developer deals, government schemes and special mortgage rates.

The different government programmes that are available for first time and new home buyers is a great resource to help get you started on buying a home.

If you’re looking for a fun yet effective way to search for your next home, Find Properly lets you enter your price range and use a map to pinpoint places you visit frequently, this includes common places such as work or university, and will automatically calculate places with the shortest travel times.

This is a great search engine if you would like to move to London and want to specify what tube zones you will be using the most.

If you are looking for an easy to follow search engine, Find Property minimises your stress and worries with their search features by giving you thorough insights into the neighbourhood you’re interested in moving to.