Guess which portal agents use when home hunting for themselves?
Federation of Independent Agents’ survey claims that when property professionals go house hunting for themselves they start with Rightmove.
FIA chief Graham Lock says his survey of where property professionals begin their own home searches for a new home reveals that 85% begin with Rightmove.
The survey involved many well-known, influential industry figures alongside business owners from a range of industry-related companies.
85% said they would start their search with Rightmove, 5% with Zoopla or On The Market and another 5% said they would visit a local agent/website.
Agents will be buoyed by the fact that they came in at the same percentage as Zoopla and OTM.”
Lock says: “We all know that the majority of the general public go to Rightmove first in their search for a property but this survey was aimed at property professionals from within the industry who have a deeper knowledge and understanding of how the market really works.”
He adds: “Votes came in from various Directors, CEO’s and the like from within the property world. We had votes from senior portal figures, suppliers and estate agency business owners of all sizes including corporates and independents.
First port of call
“What this outcome says is that despite people from within the industry having an inside track on all matters they still prefer Rightmove as their first port of call for their own property search.
“On The Market are planning a significant marketing campaign in the near future as they plan to eat into some of Rightmove’s market share dominance but as we’ve seen in the past it’s a tough nut to crack not only altering the behaviour of the general public but also from professionals within the industry.
“Maybe this gives a clue as to why Rightmove recently rejected takeover approaches, they’re clearly out on their own at the moment when it comes to property search, specifically as to the first port of call.
“Agents will be buoyed by the fact that they came in at the same percentage as Zoopla and OTM which means people still value going to a local point of contact first, a trend they’ll want to see continue to rise.”
The FIA is an invitation-only membership organisation that supports high-performing independent estate agents.
