Category Archives: Global / Multi Country
2010: What’s in Store for Agents?
With the effects of the global financial crisis still being felt in plenty of places around the world, many real estate agents will be more than happy to see 2009 come to a close. “Recovery” is the word on everyone’s lips as we start the first year of the next decade, even though no one can really predict how long it will take.
The new year’s technology trends are probably just as difficult to pinpoint, but that won’t stop us from trying. Here’s what propertyadguru.com sees in its crystal ball for 2010:
Google Real Estate – Should Agents Bank On It?
The news just over a week ago that Google was “entering” the UK/European market has sent the share prices of Rightmove and Seloger into a tailspin. Seloger dropped by 9% while Rightmove has plummeted a whopping 17%. Seloger has since recovered to its pre-news price while Rightmove continues to be significantly down.
So let’s look at what happened, will the property portal landscape change and is this impact on the share prices is justified.
An article by the Financial Times (Dec 2 titled “Google set to enter UK property market”) seems to have set the cat amongst the pigeons. The article stated that Google is in talks with British estate agents and that “experts” say that an entry by them to the market could pose a serious threat to existing property websites. The article didn’t talk about what Google was going to do and Google didn’t comment. So there is really not much to go on. So the only guide we really have as to what Google may do in the UK and Europe is what they have done in Australia.
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