Property portals face existential threat from AI says tech pioneer
Mal McCallion, who has been behind PrimeLocation, Zoopla and Get Agent, says the next generation of AI will deliver much more tailored search results to house hunters.
One of the property industry’s highest-profile tech pioneers has predicted that the big portals face an existential crisis once artificial intelligence takes hold in the public’s mind.
Mal McCallion (main image) who was one of the ‘originals’ at PrimeLocation and Zoopla and more recently has been involved in several property industry platforms including GetAgent, recently set up ModelProp, a consultancy advising agents on artificial intelligence.
He tells The Neg that platforms such as ChatGP will soon become a significant player in the property sales and letting marketing game as more and more consumers use them to find their ‘dream home’.
McCallion’s contention is that AI will be able to deliver much more tailored results than the big portals.
“When PrimeLocation launched it was the dawn of digital and for Zoopla is was the early days of smartphones, so I’m always looking for that ‘moment’ when everything changes and for me right now that’s AI,” he says.
“I think there will be a lot of opportunists coming into the industry and offering estate agencies AI-based services so I wanted to offer an independent source of advice for them, and that’s why I launched ModelProp.”
And it’s McCallion’s views on the UK’s big property portals that are some of his most interesting.
“The big game changer is going to be ‘agentic’ AI which, rather than just giving generated answers to questions, will be able to take action and make decisions,” he says.
“So if I ask it to give me every property in the UK with three bedrooms near a train station, a large garden, loft conversion potential and with a parking space – listed for 8% less than comparable properties – then agentic AI will look through every portal, social media platform and agent website and, after a few minutes of hunting, deliver the results.”
Seismic change
MacCallion believes this will generate a ‘seismic change’ in the way house hunters find their future home – and that AI is already chipping away at the way people search for property online because it can do the heavy lifting.
“It means people will no longer have to spend hours trawling through the portals, and this will have a major impact on these platforms and how people use them,” he adds.
“This will also enable estate agents to once more promote their brands and specialities, something that portals have to date smothered.”
Great piece from Mal, but it’s not just AI that threatens the portals. Periodic tenancies will drive a substantial shift in how tenants search and decide to move. Those looking to live in specific locations, will only move when the right property hits the market- and periodic tenancies will give them the flexibility to do that.
We are already looking at how we market our portfolio year round (not on portals), so people can register their interest at any time. When notice is served by tenants, the first thing we will do is contact our pre-registered list, and we expect to see more and more lets done like this without the need to ‘go to market’.
Times they are a changing!