MEDIA RELEASE
released by:
Alistair Helm, CEO of realestate.co.nz

UNDER EMBARGO
Embargoed until midnight tonight - Sunday 1 July, 2007

NZ Real Estate Websites Record Over One Million Visitors Every Month

Results of study jolt real estate industry with a clear message from clients to innovate, perform and inform

The Nielsen NetRatings• study into the behaviour of buyers and sellers of property has revealed strong demand for new services and staggering interest in property listings on-line.

ALMOST 1.2MILLION VISITORS TO MAY’S ON-LINE PROPERTIES
1,166,077 unique browsers••

One initially alarming statistic to come from the survey was that 50% of people said they will try and sell without using a real estate agent. It’s the first time that I am aware that question has been asked anywhere in the world”.

“If you look at other questions and other known factors this response doesn’t necessarily put the real estate agent on death row. Three quarters (¾) of respondents stated a clear preference to deal with an agent when buying and although 50% may attempt to sell privately the number of homes that are actually sold privately makes up 10% of total sales – a consistent figure for many years right across the world”.

WHY SELL PRIVATELY?
76% don’t want to pay real estate commissions
61% don’t see the value agents provide
52% say they don’t like the pressure from agents

“Globally research has shown increasing numbers of people are opting for real estate websites over newspapers for looking at property, so much so that real estate companies who are not profiling their listings online risk missing an important channel to the market”.

“The research indicates real estate websites are now the most powerful tool with 8 out of 10 buyers using them compared to 6 out of 10 using real estate magazines”.

“Newspapers have dropped dramatically since the first survey a year ago - 5 out of 10 say they use newspapers which is a drop off of 23% since last year. In time this downward trend is likely to have a significant impact on newspaper’s revenue as real estate companies spend less money on expensive colour advertising and post more photos and video online”.

80% of buyers also said they use specialist real estate websites to research and thereby eliminate homes before calling an agent, in essence 8 out of 10 buyers have made most of their decisions before an agent gets the opportunity to influence them.

The fundamental message in this survey is that the real estate industry needs to embrace new technology, innovate and respond to client requests for more information and get it to them faster and easier.

BUYERS INFO WISH LIST
Nielsen NetRatings say buyers want to see the addresses of properties for sale, an accurate price range, large good quality photos and maps

Essentially the future of real estate is in fast electronic communications – email and email alerts, text and subscription updates, sophisticated search engines on property websites so they can filter listings by their priorities and each home should have a large portfolio of photos even video that compliments continually updated detailed information.

Specialist property websites provide many of these services already so it’s easy to understand why people have moved online.

KIWIS SPEND 2 ½ HOURS ON LINE PER WEEK LOOKING AT THE QUARTER ACRE
Nielsen NetRatings say people spend on average 161 minutes per week on specialist real estate websites

Background on Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Realestate.co.nz is the official website of the real estate industry – it’s jointly owned by the Real Estate Institute of NZ and Property Page NZ Ltd (a company owned by 6 of the largest real estate agencies: Harcourts, Harveys, Barfoot &Thompson, Ray White, L J Hooker and Bayleys).
It is the biggest website by far with over 80% of all property listings nationwide (95% of all licensed listings) on average there’s 70,000 properties for sale at any given time.

In the next few months Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. will launch a whole new range of services and layers of information. This is in response to feedback that this research results have mirrored – buyers want to make decisions without having to leave the website or wait for information and agents/sellers want to profile their property in a comprehensive and visually professional way.

ENDS

Annotations

• Nielsen NetRatings – Real Estate Market Report
(Findings 2nd Annual Report, June 2007)
- Data Collected between 10 April – 15 May 2007
- 1,161 respondents
- Margin of error (+ or –) 4%

•• Unique Browsers - Every computer has an identifying number known as an IP address. The UB figure is calculated by counting how many different or unique IP addresses hit real estate websites each month.
- Two UBs or ticks would be recorded if one person looked on a work computer and then again from home.
- Equally only one UB or tick is recorded despite 2 or more people using/sharing just one computer at work.

The Nielsen NetRatings – Real Estate Market Report is an annual report, this is its second edition. The report was commissioned by a number of companies operating specialist real estate websites and services within the industry.

ENDS