UK Portals Battle for Decreasing Traffic

Internet traffic analyst, comScore has released November figures for the UK. These will be a Christmas present for some, and a source of discontent for others, as the race to claim the overall top spot for 2008 reaches its final stages.

With declining web traffic overall to real estate websites in November, the competition has been heated.

rightmove.co.uk still leads with almost twice the number of unique visitors (1,994,000) as its nearest rival, findaproperty.com (1,069,000) at number two.

Over the last two months findaproperty.com has overtaken propertyfinder.com, who has been relegated to number three (1,030,000).

Controversially, the Digital Property Group, which owns findaproperty.com, as well as findanewhome.com (33rd with 96,000), primelocation.com (4th with 908,000) and homesandproperty.co.uk (8th with 300,000), claims to have closed the gap on rightmove.co.uk.

In November the difference between the number of unique visitors to rightmove.co.uk and the Digital Property Group’s portals was at an all time low of only 211,000. Mark Milner, chief executive of Digital, was quoted in Estate Agent Today as saying: “We have firmly established ourselves as second in the market place and are most certainly gaining ground on the market leader.”

However, the Digital Property Group makes its claims based on combining web traffic for all their portals together, whereas rightmove.co.uk is a single website.

It isn’t the only claim the Digital Property Group have made about the November figures. Earlier this month findanewhome.com claimed it had overtaken UK market leader smartnewhomes.com as the most-visited new homes portal. smartnewhomes.com issued a statement suggesting that the number one spot was only held by findanewhome.com for a short period of time, meaning smartnewhomes.com is still the market leader.

Meanwhile propertyindex.com has issued a statement claiming it has not only overtaken one of its biggest competitors, globrix.com, but also bucked the market trend by doubling its visitor traffic in November. propertyindex.com came in at number fifteen on the list (211,000), with globrix.com at number twenty one (171,000).

Visitor numbers to propertyindex.com in November were reported to be more than double the amount recorded for October and five times the volume of visitor traffic reported for June 2008. By contrast traffic to all real estate websites in the UK fell by around 20%. In November total UK real estate traffic was 6,595,000 while in September it was as high as 7,719,000.

propertyindex.com’s chief executive, Lee Bramzell is putting a very positive spin on the comScore results:

“The fact that we’ve seen our traffic increase in a declining market bodes extremely well for the future. It’s certainly not all doom and gloom…”

“Industry insights such as the comScore figures are invaluable to new portals and will no doubt send a clear message to all estate agents and developers planning how best to market their properties for sale and rent in 2009.”

The comScore Top 10 for UK real estate in November 2008 was:

1. rightmove.co.uk
2. findaproperty.com
3 propertyfinder.com
4. primelocation.com
5. realestate.com.au
6. nestoria.co.uk
7. vebra
8. homesandproperty.co.uk
9. Trovit UK Homes
10. houseprices.co.uk

zoomf.com

zoomf.com is a UK based property search engine for residential homes to buy or rent. Launched in 2006, it was acquired by Trinity Mirror plc in November 2008.

Search results link through to the source - typically to listings on agents’ own websites. Its unique selling point is the search itself, which is more specified and allows users to specify price, style, location, and other special features.

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propertyfinder.com

propertyfinder.com is the second of the UK’s “Big 4″ property portals. It was begun in 1995 and has been owned by the REA Group and News Limited since 2005.

It receives over 1.9 million unique visitors every month and lists over 350,000 properties from just under 4,000 estate agency offices.

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propertylive.co.uk

propertylive.co.uk is the free-to-list portal belonging to the National Federation of Property Professionals (NFOPP) in the UK. It launched in beta form in October 2008.

propertylive.co.uk claims to be the only property search site that’s regulated, protected and run by a professional body of fully accredited agents. To list properties, agents must be members of the NFOPP’s organisations: National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA); Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA); National Association of Valuers and Auctioneers (NAVA); Institution of Commercial & Business Agents (ICBA).

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findanewhome.com

findanewhome.com is a portal that focuses on new homes and properties from new build property developers in the UK. It is the sister website of findaproperty.com. It is one of the market leaders in new properties for sale in the UK.

The website also contains a wealth of information about new homes, with articles, home buyer advice and “how to” guides.

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primelocation.com

 Primelocation.com is one of the UK’s leading property websites, aimed largely at the top end of the market. The site was launched by a consortium of over 200 leading independent estate agents who were committed to leverage their collective strength to be at the forefront of online property marketing. Offering both properties for sale and rent in the middle and upper markets, the site also promotes overseas properties from agents in over 60 countries.

Primelocation also publishes a monthly property magazine, hand-delivered to pre-selected homes in prime areas of London. In addition, the ‘Prime Property Prices Index’ is published on a monthly basis - an index that provides analysis on house price trends across the UK.

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findaproperty.com

findaproperty.com is one of the major players in the UK market. It has a traditional search facility for properties for sale and let in both the UK and some overseas markets but its main differentiator is its inclusion of comprehensive editorial. There’s information on the housing market and guides on all different aspects of the buying, selling and renting process as well as very good local information such as crime rates, school tables, tax rates and comments from locals.

The findaproperty.com audience is house hunters in early life stages – renters and first time buyers through to those working their way up the ladder.

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inea.co.uk

inea.co.uk stands for the Independent Network of Estate Agents, and offers a multiple listing service (MLS) for independent estate agents in the UK. inea.co.uk has signed up 150 agents to their portal.

Established in July 2008, the ethos behind the website is that for years agents have been working together behind the scenes on behalf of their valued clients. Now with inea.co.uk research and software they can access other members’ shared properties. The website is also linked to other international property networks.

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newhomesforsale.co.uk

newhomesforsale.co.uk is the second largest property portal for newly-built homes in the UK market, based on number of visitors to the website. However, in terms of the choice – newhomesforsale.co.uk is likely to have the largest number of UK newly-built developments to search.

There are over 4,000 developments from over 1,000 builders, covering an estimated 90% of the market in England, Scotland & Wales.

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ezylet.com

Having launched in mid 2007, ezylet.com claims to be the fastest growing rental portal in the UK – where the focus is entirely on rental property, not sales. A free-to-participate model is operated – so agents and landlords can advertise their properties for free and tenants can search and contact for free.

ezylet.com is able to do this as supporting revenue streams are generated from subsidiary activities such as services, resources and trade listings. In addition to free listings it also operates premium listings options, where fees are paid for enhanced visibility.

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