Rightmove AI photo rules: light touch vs enhanced edits

Rightmove allows AI-generated or AI-manipulated property images, but only as Enhanced Edits: they must not misrepresent the property, must be accompanied by current, accurate images of the room or property, and must be clearly labelled as AI or otherwise enhanced. Light Touch Edits such as cropping and brightness adjustment need none of that. So a virtual-staged living room can go up, with a label and a real photo of the empty room beside it.

This is from Rightmove's technical guidelines (dated January 2026), read on 2026-10-02. Check the live guideline before you upload, because it is a vendor document that can change.

What counts as light touch and what is enhanced?

The guidelines split edits into two groups.

What does that mean for virtual staging?

Adding furniture to an empty room is an Enhanced Edit by the guideline's definition: it adds objects. Plan to publish the staged image with a label and keep the original in the same listing. Never change fixed features such as windows, flooring or ceiling height, because the guideline names changing architectural features as an enhancement and bans misrepresentation outright.

Rightmove also asks for images of the property or land offered, and nothing misleading about the immediate locale, so do not composite a sea view.

How do I do the staged image with Sume?

Send the empty-room photo as an input reference with the Image API, ask for furniture only, and request aspect_ratio 3:2, which is the ratio Rightmove's help page recommends for uploads. Keep the original file named alongside the staged one so the pair travels together.

Write the label text in the listing itself, not in the pixels, since a baked-in caption is hard to edit later.

import os, requests

r = requests.post(
    "https://api.sume.com/v1/images",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['SUME_API_KEY']}"},
    json={
        "model": "sume/auto",
        "prompt": "Add a neutral sofa, rug and coffee table to this empty living room. Do not change walls, windows, floor or ceiling.",
        "input_references": [
            {"type": "image_url", "image_url": {"url": "https://example.com/listing/living-room-empty.jpg"}}
        ],
        "aspect_ratio": "3:2",
    },
    timeout=60,
)
body = r.json()
if r.status_code == 200:
    print(body["data"][0]["url"])
else:  # 202: poll the job
    print(body["data"]["status_url"])