New twin property portals Commercial People and Residential People have insisted that there is room for more competition in the sector.
Both launched this year across the UK, UAE and South Africa, and are set to launch shortly in India, Nigeria and China, with ambitions to roll out across the globe.
They are free to list for both commercial and residential agents, and both say that this could help bring portal costs down generally.
London-based director Christopher May said: “The hard work has just begun but we are overjoyed with the positive response we are getting from agents so far.”
May said that the international proposition is key, making it stand out from other portals.
“For example, Rightmove has approximately 635 properties in South Africa and we have over 25,000.”
May said: “After constantly reading about the increasing costs of running a real estate agency and having been an agent myself, I fully appreciate the burden of the rising costs of running a successful real estate agency.
“This is why we decided to build a ‘free to list’ property portal that adds real value.
“I believe a lot of buyers and sellers do not truly understand the pressure that a lot of agents are under, particularly when it comes to the marketing of their property.
“You have to realise that most agents only get paid if they are successful which is why it is such a tough job, and I don’t think that a lot of the advertising portals out there truly appreciate this.
“At Residential People, we are completely free to list for agents, who can drive more traffic to their listings, giving them the extra value and ammunition required to win new business and in turn helping to improve profitability.”
Asked about how the new portals are marketing themselves to the general public, May said that the portals are being actively promoted to the public via social media, and have also made some strategic hires, including that of former head of SEO at Rightmove Farhaad Saleh, who joined in September.
May added: “We will have more exciting news to announce regarding our 2020 marketing strategy in the New Year.”
Nothing is free when they have overheads. Boggin your customers down with third party marketing is nothing more than junk mail and we all know what the attitude to junk mail is …. negative and could it rebound on you? This sounds more like what they want, rather than what you need considering current excess of outlets?
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Only saying but direct mail achieves 4% success (1:25), email campaigns about 0.12% (1:800) and portals 0.034% (1:3000)
The industry as a whole seems happy to spend shed loads on marketing that’s fractionally (1/120th) as effective as the junk mail you’re using to make a point about marketing that has a seriously bad reputation.
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25,000 properties in South Africa, I must join.
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Good luck!
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