Rightmove is the biggest property portal in the UK, with nearly 50% more properties on it than its nearest rival and a million homes for sale or rent on it.

But with prices and rents soaring, how can you use it smarter than the average person to find the site's hidden gems?

We take a look:

There are 4 different Rightmove property searches
You can outline exactly where you want to live

There are four ways to search for a home on Rightmove, although people generally only use one:

  1. Standard search: You put in a place, then hit the “For Sale” or “To rent” buttons and go. You can then refine by search radius, price range, number of bedrooms, property type and when it was added to the site to filter your results.

  2. Browse by map: Start your search for property in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, or London . You then follow the drop down menu to narrow you search by region, town, and even parts of town see what's for sale or rent in the area

  3. Draw a search: Know where you want to live? Then you can see what's for sale in a very specific area using draw a search. Simply follow the instructions on screen to define an area, then either save it for later or search now to see what's on the market in the space you defined.

  4. London tube map search: One for people wanting to move somewhere in the capital, there's the option of searching by train station or tube stop. You can either click on a station or type it in to the search box and see what's for sale or to rent within half a mile of them.

But once you've set your search, what can you do to find the hidden gems? Here are our top 4 tips.

1. Seeing new homes first

With so much competition for homes to rent or buy, getting through the doors first – or seeing when prices change – can make a huge difference.

The good news is that once you've defined searches on Rightmove, you can not only save them, you can get new properties that appear in them emailed to you instantly.

There's a “sign in” button at the top-right of the screen on desktop, or on the app, letting you share saved searches and properties between devices and check out new homes on the go if an email comes in.

2. Smarter searching

Rightmove defaults to “price, high-to-low” on its search, but that might not be the best way to find homes.

Here are some filters to try:

  • “Newest listed” - see the latest price moves and listings, rather than having to wade through pages of results.

  • “Oldest listed” - if they've been on the market for a while, then there's a chance you could pick up a bargain or negotiate the price down. It could just be a lack of pictures or a badly worded listing that's holding them back.

There's another trick you can use here... If you increase the price range of your search, then search for oldest listed, you might be able to find something that other people searching in your bracket are missing, and negotiate the price down.

3. Increase the radius
Map search lets you drill down to specific areas

If you're struggling to find somewhere nice in budget, then try increasing the search radius. This brings in more homes, some of which might be only just outside the old radius.

You can then filter your results by “Nearest first” to see the ones that only just missed out on the previous searches – that other people might be missing entirely.

4. Sign up with an agent (or several)

It might seem a little old fashioned, but by signing up with an estate agent you can hear about homes that are on the market before they even appear on Rightmove.

Rightmove has a separate search page for people looking for agents near where they want to move to – just enter a post code or location name here to get a list of agents that cover the area, along with phone numbers, email addresses and information on the agents themselves.

Happy house hunting!