Property development listings need to have as much information as possible in one place, and what often happens as that the majority of homes available in developments, when advertised online, will be listed as a single residential listing.
This is not ideal, says Simon Comley, director of PropertyEngine, because it is not usually possible to fit the entire development’s information or units available in that type of listing, nor will it do the development justice.
To this end, a service agreement has been entered into between PropertyEngine and Property24, whereby PropertyEngine feeds development information to Property24’s development specific listing section, which is wholly unique to PropertyEngine at this point, says Comley.
REDi (Real Estate Development Interactive) and PropertyEngine, in turn, have entered into a separate collaboration agreement allowing their development information, via PropertyEngine, to be published to Property24. As a leader in development sales information and management systems, REDi is a rich source of content on various residential projects – “collaboration between the companies was obvious”, says Comley.
Why would the different listing be important, most would ask?
A single residential listing is one unit in a development, but generally developments have more than one option to choose from. The problem here is that the house hunter will not know that. He might find a listing for a two bedroom unit but he is looking for a three bedroom one – he will not know what that development has on offer unless he goes back to the search and goes through all the other listings in that area, which is very time consuming. The New Development Listing solves this problem by providing all the plans and information in one place.
“The attention, therefore, is being focused on the buyers’ and developers’ needs,” says Andrew Kumm, a director at REDi. “With PropertyEngine now feeding both the Property24 and HelloHouse listing platforms with pertinent information on new developments, the potential buyers have a better idea on what is on offer and the developer has a better mechanism to showcase his project.”
“In our recent marketing efforts we’ve talked a lot about this new way of listing developments and why our clients should be publishing their developments to it. Developers tend to understand the importance of this but agencies don’t often grasp why. The reason tends to be the same; most estate agencies (at least the big ones) already have a feed to Property24, often through their own proprietary software or via PropControl. They often use this feed to publish an example unit for a development onto the site and they feel like they already have a presence there,” says Comley.
There is often more to a development than just the houses available for sale within it. Some developments are like whole new cities with gyms, hospitals and even top schools. The New Development Listing gives the house hunter a list of facilities available on that development, meaning they are more aware of what’s on offer and if it’s suitable.
And last but not least, says Comley, is that developments are selling new houses and not previously owned ones (resales will in all likelihood come later), so the New Development Listing gives the user the ability to hone in their search to the categories they need.
Kumm says that there are numerous benefits for REDi’s property developers who list their projects via PropertyEngine. These are:
- Better marketing, as potential buyers get to see exactly what the developer has on offer in terms of house types and estate lifestyle features;
- Increased exposure as the development is listed on both portals;
- Time saving due to leads automatically being allocated to SiMS, which means no need for recapturing of information and a reduction in errors;
- Developers can track and gauge interest generated via these portals and they do not need to rely on agents to give the information or add the leads to their data base;
- Increased transparency and accountability with the marketing agents is now possible because all leads are channelled into SiMS and the developer can track agent performance;
- Customer service is improved as leads can be managed on SiMS in terms of their needs; and
- Duplicate listings and market confusion are prevented.
“The New Development listing space on the portals has improved dramatically, and I would encourage the marketing teams and selling agents of new developments to consider the needs of both the buyers and sellers (developers) when listing. The technology is there and should be utilised in the interest of all stakeholders,” says Kumm.
For further information contact Andrew Kumm on 082 870 4346 or email andrew@red-i.co.za.