What is going on with Rightmove?

[Tesseracted]

I am at the end of a 20 yr relationship and we are due to part ways. Have both always rented due to WFH and not having children, we have enjoyed the freedom of moving around and living in some lovely places over the years and had good experiences renting.

I am self employed and can move where I want to, but would still prefer to go somewhere familiar since I am alone for the first time in so long. My issue at present is Rightmove. I am not aware of any other way to search and perhaps a bit out of the loop?

There seems to be so very little on there at all, and mostly HMO's.
Had many more results and variety last time we used it around 11 yrs ago but it looks terrible now. We live in a fairly decent, very large town and according to Rightmove there are only 2 pages of results below £1200 pcm. The average price here is around £700.
Most are dated looking flats and HMO's with the occasional terrace or semi in bad repair. Now considering this is a very large town and has always had many rentals in good areas, WTF is going on? If housing was so scarce here there would be hundreds of professionals and low income workers alike on the streets, and since there isn't, I can't get my head around the dire search results.

Is there a better website to way to search now? It looks particularly grim compared to previously. It is like the shadiest and crappiest stuff is taking up space on there. Now I know housing has taken a battering in recent years, both with prices and availability, but there definitely must be many more in this town or else the place would be chaos!

Expand your search.
Visit Zoopla.
Visit OpenRent/DSS Move - listed directly by Landlords.
SpareRoom - originally for people who want to rent a room but Landlords sometimes list properties there if it’s been empty for a while.

All you can do is keep on searching. You may not get exactly what you hoped for but you’ll have to live somewhere!

Rentals don't tend to be listed in Rightmove so much these days. You need to register with local agencies and keep an eye on their social media as most properties get snapped up before they.hit Rightmove.

So many landlords now selling up around here (myself included). I know of 8 houses/flats locally which were rented out a year ago and are now empty/ waiting to be sold.

Well most people that rent who I am aware of are doing ok, apart from in tourist areas.
My OP was concerning Rightmove availability, it doesn't seem to reflect what I am seeing in real life (only 4 houses in a gigantic town). That obviously isn't true.
I will def put more focus on agents first. Thanks everyone!

I would suggest dealing with agents directly. Rentals often go off the market almost immediately as the agent has a bookful of people looking and so can get people to view without paying to list online. Those flats which you do see online are more likely to be those that the agent couldn't find a renter for, ie those with problems.

You need to do some footwork OP. Why would agents bother with all the fuss of getting photos taken etc to go on RightMove, when they've got queues of eager renters like you?