PORTals
their total business. Otherwise, the market Globrix is young
is fragmented. For instance Kyero and strong with
competes mainly against ThinkSpain, as media giant News
well as UK portal Primelocation, but there International and
are numerous smaller portals selling Rupert Murdoch
Spanish property to UK buyers. Idealista behind it
and Fotocasa are the biggest in Spain, but
are hardly ever used by overseas buyers.
“There are a lot of also-rans,” Martin Dell
says. “They’re making money. None of
them are well funded; it’s just a
programmer and a guy on the phone
selling, so they can afford to be cheap.”
The larger international portals, on the
other hand, are now beginning to expand.
Kyero is building portals in a number of
other countries, though they will be
separately branded. But lack of data is a weekly newsletter and articles on various
problem in many countries, Martin Dell topics. Content creation and search engine
complains. “The American and UK sites optimisation accounts for over two-thirds
are doing all the innovation; in overseas of Kyero’s cost base, a massive investment.
markets it’s down to a lack of data.” But after all, a large agent could
Portals are increasing their functionality theoretically introduce all these bells and
all the time. For instance, Alex Chesterman whistles to its own coverage. When the
says, Zoopla has gone beyond listings to first generation portals started, many
provide “a much wider experience”, looking agents had no web sites or very poor sites,
at all properties, not just those that are for so the portal had major advantages. Now,
sale. That enables the site to attract a
Lots of people
Dan Lee says, agents are beginning to
different audience, including owners
checking the value of their property.
underestimate how
understand how to do their own online
marketing, with good sites and good search
Other content is also being added,
including community features that will
much money and
engine optimisation. Even so, he thinks
agents benefit from using a portal.
enable consumers to contact professionals,
time it takes to run
But what can portals offer that agents
and neighbourhood information. All this can’t? Martin Dell believes portals can help
permanent content should help Zoopla
a proper portal. It’s a
offer impartiality and transparency, which
rate high on search engines. One of the is particularly important to buyers of
problems with the traditional listings million a year before overseas property. The advantage to the
model is that listings are temporary, so
Google tends not to pick the data up.
you get out of bed...
agent is that educated customers will
create the best qualified leads, though he
Kyero has a number of features such as
...there’ll be more
admits some agents still don’t like to use
pricing data and a ‘popularity’ score based Kyero’s price guide.
on various criteria, such as the proportion
closures.’
“Asking an estate agent about value –
of views to enquiries. These all add value to he’s not the best man for the job!” Martin
the bare bones of the listings. So does a DANIEL LEE, gLobrIx jokes. “With so much information available
on the internet, the agent doesn’t set the
price, it’s the market that sets the price.”
He’s also proud that the Kyero newsletter
tells the bald truth about what’s happening
in the Spanish property market. “We’re not
here to pitch, to sell; we’re impartial.”
Agents will also find it difficult to
compete with portals in terms of the sheer
size of investment in technology and
content. The top ten portals can outspend
any agent, even the biggest. Dan Lee says
Martin Dell of “Lots of people underestimate how much
international money and time it takes to run a proper
portal Kyero portal. It’s a million a year before you get
is proud of its out of bed.”
impartiality Portals are also highly focused on the
web, in a way that agents aren’t. Peter
14 JULY-AUGUST 2009 PROPERTYdrum
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