An intelligent search engine for the UK Property Industry?
A new intelligent search engine that lists all properties – in real time – by every estate agent across the UK is being launched. The search engine – proptyle.co.uk – which is the property equivalent of Google, is set to help estate and letting agents boost profits and reduce their monthly outgoing costs.
Housstech Limited, the special purpose vehicle was formed in collaboration between two successful PropTechs: v360 Limited, the UK Company behind leading property marketing specialist houseviz.com, and Indian company Proptyle Limited. V360 Limited, the innovators for the immersive 360-degree tours, was originally conceived at the Incubator, University of Manchester some 10 years ago.
The ground-breaking search engine, which automatically links to listings on estate agent websites using an intelligent search bot will be free to use. It does not scrape or store data like some others but uniquely similar to Google, hence making it a 2nd Gen true search engine. .
Delivering a better user experience all round, the engine will provide buyers with the ability to search residential properties by complex parameters, including search words commonly used by house hunters but not normally available by mainstream portals and hence unique to the market.
As listings are pulled directly from agent websites, estate agents will no longer have to pay third-party portals to list their properties. There is no need for Agents to register to be included in the search, or to upload and integrate listings manually but house hunters will be advised to register in order to receive Property Alerts.
Crucially, this approach will help estate agents to reduce their monthly advertising and administrative spend while offering increased web traffic and lead generation by directly connecting property hunters and vendors to agents. This will ultimately, give the website control back to the agents and improve its own web rankings.
Because the search engine pulls through and automatically updates listings, the pioneering new model will also help the consumer by delivering accurate and active listings. And, with details of every agent across the UK, vendors can search for an estate agent, with transparent information on what they offer (e.g. virtual tours, immersive photography, etc.), and how other buyers have rated their service.
Peter Fernandes, one of the Director’s said: “A new model for property listings is well overdue. There are simply too many disparate sites at the moment, all charging agents additional monthly fees and this approach just isn’t sustainable in today’s very volatile and competitive marketplace.
“Akin to Google in terms of functionality, our search engine is just what estate agents have been calling out for as they look for ways to reduce costs and boost profits. While our competitors are killing agents by charging exorbitant fees to list their properties, we’ve turned this model on its head. So, rather than charging estate agents to list, our model raises revenue by charging a modest fee for access to a range of additional, and entirely optional, integrated property marketing services from houseviz.com. The services, which are very much wanted by vendors, but very rarely mentioned by agents. This approach will help those agents who deliver excellent customer service to thrive and it is this type of user experience that consumers have been asking and will encourage Agents to up sell and try and increase their revenue..
“It’s a hugely exciting development that we believe will revolutionise property marketing as we know it; for the agent and for the consumer. I’m looking forward to seeing it transform the market.”
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