The venerable weekend property-listing pages are likely to play second fiddle to property websites in the next 10 years, such is the growing popularity of the online medium.
Johan Strydom, general manager of PropertyGenie.co.za, South Africa’s most comprehensive property-listing website, says that traditional property print pages are increasingly having to compete with property website listings the world over, particularly as advertisers are backing this trend with hard cash.
“New research from the United Kingdom’s Jupiter Research consultancy shows that European internet users spend more time online than they do reading newspapers and magazines.
“But while internet usage has accompanied a rise in overall television consumption, print usage has stayed flat over the past three years, according to the survey of nearly 4 500 European consumers.
“European internet users spend on average four hours per week on the internet, compared with three hours per week reading newspapers and magazines.”
Overall media usage has risen to an average of 19 hours per week, up from 15 hours in 2003, according to the research.
Strydom also points to a UK report by the Internet Advertising Bureau, the World Advertising Research Centre and PricewaterhouseCoopers that shows that £993,4-million was spent on national press advertising in the UK in the first six months of 2006 — just £76,2-million more than online, and accounting for an 11,4% share of all ad spend.
The amount advertisers spent on the internet was up 40,3% year-on-year to £917-million in the first half of the year, and was forecast to overtake press advertising spend before the end of 2006.
Similar trend
Strydom says South Africa is experiencing a similar trend and that he has noticed a recent surge in property listings on the PropertyGenie.co.za website, which experienced a 30% rise in listings in the past two months alone.
“Property-listing pages in newspapers are unlikely to be the preferred advertising place in the next few years, as they are unwieldy and have illogical and complicated listings indices. They will also struggle as advertisers continue to plough money into the online space because that is where the consumer is.”
Strydom says the key drivers of online growth abroad include the rapid rate of uptake of broadband and falling internet usage costs — factors that will take root in South Africa, too, as the cost of communications is set to decline when more competitors enter the market with better products.
“Other factors include a continuing boom in online retailing, innovation in creativity and new marketing tools such as blogs, podcasts and social networking websites, all attracting mass-media popularity and more money online from advertisers in general.”
The media magnate Rupert Murdoch has also predicted a gloomy future for newspapers, which he noted last year were failing to adapt to the realities of the internet.
Murdoch famously said: “This is a generational thing: I don’t know anybody under 30 who has ever looked at a classified advertisement in a newspaper.”
Using the web
According to a National Association of Realtors survey in the United States — one of the largest surveys of real-estate consumers conducted to date — use of the internet to search for a home has risen spectacularly over time, increasing from only 2% of buyers in 1995 to 74% in 2004 and 77% in 2005.
Strydom says that many estate agencies have seen the writing on the wall and are adapting. “Sotheby’s International Realty, for example, has spent R14-million on upgrading its international website late last year.”
When talking to estate agents, he has found that many sellers are now asking — and expecting — a website listing as part of the property marketing plan.
“The real-estate industry in South Africa today is changing quickly. Although people still need to do the footwork looking at houses, many are finding property websites a good starting point and an invaluable aid in the screening process,” Strydom said.
“Another important factor is that many property websites are linked to bond originators and are serving as a one-stop shop for finding and financing properties.”