NIELSEN'S NET : Real Time

The internet continues to transform the way New Zealanders buy and sell their homes. The results of the second annual Nielsen//NetRatings Real Estate Market Report, conducted online in April and May 2007, show the continued strong advance of the internet into the New Zealand real estate environment.

The

report reveals that buyers and sellers of property use on average 4.7 types of real estate media for their research each week, which is up from 4.2 in 2006. The most popular media option is specialist real estate websites, such as realestate.co.nz and trademe.co.nz/property, which attract 80 percent of real estate buyers and sellers each week. This was followed by specialist real estate magazines, such as Property Press, with 60 percent. Real estate vendor company websites and community or local newspapers followed up strongly with 57 percent each.

The Real Estate Report's survey respondents also regard the internet as a good option for researching properties. Ninety-three percent rated specialist real estate websites as a useful or very useful media option, and 86 percent rated vendor company real estate websites likewise. Specialist real estate magazines and vendor company real estate magazines were next with 84 percent and 73 percent respectively.

Property buyers and sellers are spending on average more than 2.5 hours a week (161 minutes) on specialist real estate websites to research real estate information. The use of search engines comes second with nearly two hours (115 minutes) per week, and visitation of real estate vendor company websites was placed third with 106 minutes.

The survey also asked respondents if they would recommend, or not recommend, real estate websites that they had visited in the past month. The final results were given scores between zero and five, and trademe.co.nz/property and realestate.co.nz ended up being neck and neck at the top with excellent scores of four out of five. Trademe.co.nz/property just came out on top as the most recommended real estate website by users in New Zealand. Open2view.com and qv.co.nz came in third and fourth positions respectively with scores of 3.9 and 3.8.

The real estate market is indicative of quite dramatic changes for marketers who wish to communicate timely, actionable and visualised information to consumers. The internet has now become a crucial channel for marketers wanting to fulfil these needs. As a media option for researching property, the internet is raising the bar on people's information requirements before they commit to a purchase decision. It is becoming increasingly necessary for real estate buyers and sellers to receive innovative and visual property information, as soon as a property goes on the market, and this is making them turn to the internet in very high numbers.

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings' New Zealand Real Estate Report June 2007

Email tony.boyte@netratings.com