Category Archives: UK
Website Designers Target UK Agents
If you’re a regular visitor to propertyadguru.com, chances are you understand the importance of a well designed website in enticing potential clients. You’re probably also aware of the many options available, from customised WordPress themes to single property website tools.
Now, a new UK-based website creation service has been launched with real estate agents specifically in mind.
Renter Review Website Launches
A new website has been launched in the UK to give renters the ability to publish reviews on properties, landlords, estate agents, and the local area.
The propertyreview.com allows users to upload their reviews for free and provides a search option so users can find reviews by location. At the moment, there are around 30 reviews available, and while there are some with a rating of 100 percent that sound slightly like listings, many seem to be genuine impressions of properties, landlords, and agents.
estatecreate.com Builds for Agents
We first reported on UK-based single property website creation tool estatecreate.com when it launched in February last year. At the time, it was pitched as a challenge to agents in that it offered an alternative selling tool for home owners.
After launching, estatecreate.com decided to include an agent-focused option in its subscription offerings, allowing agents to create single property websites to promote their clients properties.
Since then, it seems agents have been clamouring for an option that doesn’t involve them creating the websites on their own.
Seven Portals the Minimum: home.co.uk
The results of a survey from home.co.uk, a UK-based property search engine, show some interesting trends in the listing habits of UK agencies.
home.co.uk surveyed 14,660 agencies to come up with the results, which show 93 percent of respondents list their properties on at least one portal. However, just over 20 percent of respondents were found to advertise on only one portal. Which was the most popular portal? You guessed it: rightmove.co.uk.
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.