diff --git a/src/Umbraco.Infrastructure/PropertyEditors/RichTextPropertyIndexValueFactory.cs b/src/Umbraco.Infrastructure/PropertyEditors/RichTextPropertyIndexValueFactory.cs
index 0eb1ee257ad1..6013e6c4c2f1 100644
--- a/src/Umbraco.Infrastructure/PropertyEditors/RichTextPropertyIndexValueFactory.cs
+++ b/src/Umbraco.Infrastructure/PropertyEditors/RichTextPropertyIndexValueFactory.cs
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging;
 using Microsoft.Extensions.Options;
+using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
 using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Configuration.Models;
 using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Models;
 using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Serialization;
@@ -50,7 +51,7 @@ public override IEnumerable<IndexValue> GetIndexValues(
         };
 
         // the actual content (RTE content without markup, i.e. the actual words) must be indexed under the property alias
-        var richTextWithoutMarkup = richTextEditorValue.Markup.StripHtml();
+        var richTextWithoutMarkup = StripHtmlForIndexing(richTextEditorValue.Markup);
         if (richTextEditorValue.Blocks?.ContentData.Any() is not true)
         {
             // no blocks; index the content for the culture and be done with it
@@ -132,4 +133,27 @@ public override IEnumerable<IndexValue> GetIndexValues(
 
     protected override IEnumerable<RawDataItem> GetDataItems(RichTextEditorValue input, bool published)
         => GetDataItems(input.Blocks?.ContentData ?? [], input.Blocks?.Expose ?? [], published);
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Strips HTML tags from content while preserving whitespace from line breaks.
+    /// This addresses the issue where &lt;br&gt; tags don't create word boundaries when HTML is stripped.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <param name="html">The HTML content to strip</param>
+    /// <returns>Plain text with proper word boundaries</returns>
+    private static string StripHtmlForIndexing(string html)
+    {
+        if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(html))
+        {
+            return string.Empty;
+        }
+
+        // Replace <br> and <br/> tags (with any amount of whitespace and attributes) with spaces
+        // This regex matches:
+        // - <br> (with / without spaces or attributes)
+        // - <br /> (with / without spaces or attributes)
+        html = Regex.Replace(html, @"<br\b[^>]*/?>\s*", " ", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
+
+        // Use the existing Microsoft StripHtml function for everything else
+        return html.StripHtml();
+    }
 }
diff --git a/tests/Umbraco.Tests.UnitTests/Umbraco.Core/PropertyEditors/RichTextPropertyIndexValueFactoryTests.cs b/tests/Umbraco.Tests.UnitTests/Umbraco.Core/PropertyEditors/RichTextPropertyIndexValueFactoryTests.cs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..826395a64a4c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/Umbraco.Tests.UnitTests/Umbraco.Core/PropertyEditors/RichTextPropertyIndexValueFactoryTests.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging;
+using Microsoft.Extensions.Options;
+using Moq;
+using NUnit.Framework;
+using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Configuration.Models;
+using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Models;
+using Umbraco.Cms.Core.PropertyEditors;
+using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Serialization;
+
+namespace Umbraco.Cms.Tests.UnitTests.Umbraco.Core.PropertyEditors;
+
+/// <summary>
+/// Tests for <see cref="RichTextPropertyIndexValueFactory"/> to ensure it correctly creates index values from rich text properties.
+/// </summary>
+public class RichTextPropertyIndexValueFactoryTests
+{
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Tests that the factory can create index values from a rich text property with valid content
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <param name="testContent"></param>
+    /// <param name="expected"></param>
+    [TestCase("<p>Sample text</p>", "Sample text")]
+    [TestCase("<p>John Smith<br>Company ABC<br>London</p>", "John Smith Company ABC London")]
+    [TestCase("<p>John Smith<break>Company ABC<break>London</p>", "John SmithCompany ABCLondon")]
+    [TestCase("<p>John Smith<br>Company ABC<branything>London</p>", "John Smith Company ABCLondon")]
+    [TestCase("<p>Another sample text with <strong>bold</strong> content</p>", "Another sample text with bold content")]
+    [TestCase("<p>Text with <a href=\"https://example.com\">link</a></p>", "Text with link")]
+    [TestCase("<p>Text with <img src=\"image.jpg\" alt=\"image\" /></p>", "Text with")]
+    [TestCase("<p>Text with <span style=\"color: red;\">styled text</span></p>", "Text with styled text")]
+    [TestCase("<p>Text with <em>emphasized</em> content</p>", "Text with emphasized content")]
+    [TestCase("<p>Text with <u>underlined</u> content</p>", "Text with underlined content")]
+    [TestCase("<p>Text with <code>inline code</code></p>", "Text with inline code")]
+    [TestCase("<p>Text with <pre><code>code block</code></pre></p>", "Text with code block")]
+    [TestCase("<p>Text with <blockquote>quoted text</blockquote></p>", "Text with quoted text")]
+    [TestCase("<p>Text with <ul><li>list item 1</li><li>list item 2</li></ul></p>",
+        "Text with list item 1list item 2")]
+    [TestCase("<p>Text with <ol><li>ordered item 1</li><li>ordered item 2</li></ol></p>",
+        "Text with ordered item 1ordered item 2")]
+    [TestCase("<p>Text with <div class=\"class-name\">div content</div></p>", "Text with div content")]
+    [TestCase("<p>Text with <span class=\"class-name\">span content</span></p>", "Text with span content")]
+    [TestCase("<p>Text with <strong>bold</strong> and <em>italic</em> content</p>",
+        "Text with bold and italic content")]
+    [TestCase("<p>Text with <a href=\"https://example.com\" target=\"_blank\">external link</a></p>",
+        "Text with external link")]
+    [TestCase("<p>John Smith<br class=\"test\">Company ABC<br>London</p>", "John Smith Company ABC London")]
+    [TestCase("<p>John Smith<br \r\n />Company ABC<br>London</p>", "John Smith Company ABC London")]
+    public void Can_Create_Index_Values_From_RichText_Property(string testContent, string expected)
+    {
+        var propertyEditorCollection = new PropertyEditorCollection(new DataEditorCollection(() => null));
+        var jsonSerializer = Mock.Of<IJsonSerializer>();
+        var indexingSettings = Mock.Of<IOptionsMonitor<IndexingSettings>>();
+        Mock.Get(indexingSettings).Setup(x => x.CurrentValue).Returns(new IndexingSettings { });
+        var logger = Mock.Of<ILogger<RichTextPropertyIndexValueFactory>>();
+        string alias = "richText";
+
+        var factory = new RichTextPropertyIndexValueFactory(
+            propertyEditorCollection,
+            jsonSerializer,
+            indexingSettings,
+            logger);
+
+        // create a mock property with the rich text value
+        var property = Mock.Of<IProperty>(p => p.Alias == alias
+                                               && (string)p.GetValue(It.IsAny<string>(), It.IsAny<string>(),
+                                                   It.IsAny<bool>()) == testContent);
+
+        // get the index value for the property
+        var indexValue = factory
+            .GetIndexValues(property, null, null, true, [], new Dictionary<Guid, IContentType>())
+            .FirstOrDefault(kvp => kvp.FieldName == alias);
+        Assert.IsNotNull(indexValue);
+
+        // assert that index the value is created correctly (it might contain a trailing whitespace, but that's OK)
+        var expectedIndexValue = indexValue.Values.SingleOrDefault() as string;
+        Assert.IsNotNull(expectedIndexValue);
+        Assert.AreEqual(expected, expectedIndexValue.TrimEnd());
+    }
+}