Independent agents are now able to include ‘time-based’ search filters on their websites.

It would mean that home hunters could search by travel time to, for example, their office or the nearest school.

The technology also allows home hunters to do a two-person search – for example, if a couple needed their future home to be within one hour of their respective places of work.

The technology takes into account how people want to travel and even such details as the number of traffic lights and pedestrian crossings en route.

Travel Time is the brainchild of iGeolise, founded by Charlie Davies and Peter Lilley in 2009.

The pair have built and patented the platform which this week became widely available via Property Jungle, which builds websites for estate and letting agents.

IGeolise is also starting to work directly with agents.

The technology was first used on the property portal NeedaProperty. It subsequently became a feature on first Countrywide’s website 14 months ago, and then on Zoopla.

On Countrywide’s Propertywide portal, the Travel Time has proved very successful, tripling conversion rates – ie, requests for viewings and more details. Countrywide will now be pushing Travel Time across all of its estate agency brands.

Essentially, Travel Time sorts out the best route, without using timetables or straight lines, and then provides an accurate ‘how to get there’ map.

Charlie Davies told Eye: “We have taken raw mapping data and all the public transport information in the UK.

“Of course, no one can predict a journey time to a 100% degree of accuracy, so we have tried to make it as human as possible.

“Our eventual aim is to replace distance-based search with time-based search. It would allow people to use minutes, not miles, to calculate routes.”

The first small independent to adopt Travel Time did so yesterday, so take a look at the link

Travel Time’s own website is here