Zoopla buys ThinkProperty

Zoopla announced this morning that it has bought Thinkproperty.com from Guardian Media Group (GMG) for "an undisclosed sum".
It was recently rumored that Zoopla was "in advanced talks to purchase the PropertyFinder Group,", but that announcement may have been a smokescreen. In an interview with Simon Baker, Zoopla CEO Alex Chesterman mentioned he expected to see more consolidation in the industry as it "makes sense."
In regards to the ThinkProperty acquisition, Chesterman is said to be "delighted" that Zoopla is "leading the latest round of consolidation in this market". Chesterman claims that the ThinkProperty acquisition reinforces Zoopla's ability to deliver value to estate agents by helping them increase their exposure to a wider audience. The ThinkProperty deal makes Zoopla the the exclusive property search partner on the Guardian.co.uk according to the statement released this morning.
And with reported monthly visits now approaching 30 million, Guardian.co.uk is the UK's biggest national newspaper website. In February 2009, Zoopla was ranked the UK's no. 5 property related website by comscore, with just under 500,000 monthly visits. According to this morning's statement, ThinkProperty's current traffic is just over 200,000 unique users per month.

• Related post: Innerviews with zoopla's Alex Chesterman

Prophecy fulfilled ...

Prior to the recession, Brooklyn’s Williamsburg was "fantasyland for luxury-condo developers."
In 2005, 130 new projects started and since then, over a thousand proposals have been filed with the local community board.
But that same year, a very special lady, so called "urban activist" Jane Jacobs wrote to New York Mayor Bloomberg suggesting he shelve gentrification plans for the Williamsburg waterfront. A year later she died.

“Even the presumed beneficiaries of this misuse of governmental powers, the developers and financiers of luxury towers, may not benefit, misused environments are not good long-term economic bets,” Jacobs wrote in her letter to Bloomberg.

Yet four years on, her prophecy is now realized and given the state of things, it’s unlikely that any significant development will happen in Williamsburg anytime soon. New York magazine takes an indepth look at the Williamsburg development catastrophe:

Part of what makes the present situation so dire is that it is still in the early stages of unfolding. There are already about 400 new apartments on the market in Williamsburg, and additional condos are completing construction every month. According to a study released last month, 2,818 new apartments will have hit the market by the end of this year, with another 2,766 projected by the end of 2010. On top of this, Fannie Mae, the country’s most dominant home-mortgage lender, recently implemented a policy requiring that buildings be 70 percent in contract before guaranteeing mortgages, thus delaying the moment when a developer can stop covering the taxes and common charges on a finished project…
The thing is a year ago, those inventory numbers would have been great news. Buildings around here have been selling out so fast that there didn’t seem to be an end in sight. Now, with the new restrictions, the bottom line is that most of the new buildings will have to be turned into rentals. The problem is that, for a lot of these guys, that’s just not an option.

However, one man's crisis could be another man's opportunity. Even though 2005 Jacobs' prophecy is very very powerful, Biblical prophecies are also quite telling and the Holy Book does speak of people who "rebuild the ruined cities and live in them" I wish I can be one of those people.

International buyers "unaffected by current situation" according to Primelocation.com

Results for Primelocation's 2009 International Survey revealed that 28% of respondents claim to be: "unaffected by the current economic situation."
International Business Development Manager Ann Wright, said she believed this is happening possibly because of "recent press reports of falling property prices across Europe."
The International Survey also monitored the countries the portal’s visitors are most interested in buying in; France took top spot with 25%, Spain came second (16%) and was followed by Italy and Portugal which tied in fourth place with 11% each. The United States, Cyprus, Greece, Switzerland, Turkey, Canada and the UAE took the rest of the top 10 spots.
The survey also found that buyers prefer estate agents in the country in which they are buying. UK based agents are also popular because they "give the buyer the reassurance of an English speaking service and expert" and reliable advice of the individual countries buying processes. Not surprisingly, the survey also indicated that most buyers start their search online using portals.

Google launches Auzzie property search, is UK next?

Google has officially launched a real estate search service in Australia via Google maps. Unofficially, this is nothing new as Google has been building a real estate search engine for a long time. Back in 2006, Google released a US real estate search service using Google Base and last year expanded the service to Google Maps . This morning I took the Google link for it's main Australia real estate search page (http://maps.google.com.au/help/maps/realestate/), replaced ".com.au" with ".co.uk" and got this:

[link for quality screenshot]

Then I refined a little further and typed London in the searchbox and got this result with 365,447 listings:

[link for quality screenshot]

That's an awful lot of listings when compared with Globrix, who's London search result netted
"10,000+" listings, with Zoopla recording "20,198 listings". Overall, Nestoria fared better in terms of search result numbers, but still nowhere close to Google numbers. In terms of London, Nestoria recorded "239 properties for sale in London" but offered redefined search parameters to include 7 different geographical options, totaling 108,598 listings:

Total Nestoria Results
Central London - 6,378
South East London 18,825
East London 13,916
South West London 19,524
West London 21,017
North London 17,047
North West London 11,891
Total 108,598 listings

Rightmove recorded "1000+ London listings", but similar to Nestoria, gave the opportunity to streamline search results using the following parameters, equaling 11896 + listings:

Rightmove London Results
Houses (1000+)
Detached houses (1000+)
Semi-detached houses (1000+)
Terraced houses (1000+)
Boats (1)
Flats / Apartments (1000+)
Bungalows (127)
Land (76)
Commercial Property (550)
Other (18)
Character (28)
Pre-owned homes (1000+)
Brand new homes (1000+)
Garden (1000+)
Parking (1000+)
Auction (148)
Shared ownership (705)
Retirement (243)
Non-retirement (1000+)
Total: 11896 + listings

Google's yet to be officially released UK property search engine appears in a position to do serious damage to the current main property search contenders in the UK, certainly in terms of search results, scraping technology etc. Not to mention the Google brand is way ahead of all the others. It's currently possible to upload property listings to Google Base although a lot of agents and property people I know don't seem to be aware of this.

Record numbers at property search engines

In a press release this afternoon, Globrix announced unique visitors to the site reached a record 990,000 in June, the highest level of traffic ever reported for the Newscorp owned property search engine.
Meanwhile Zillow.com announced "multiple records for site traffic and user activity" in 2009 with an average of 8.3 million unique users each month a 67 percent increase over last years figures.
Globrix CEO Daniel Lee claims their traffic numbers are "all natural" citing most property portals buy Google traffic to boost numbers:

"As the recent PropertyFinder case has shown, you can have impressive levels of traffic but it’s not a sustainable business if you have to pay to get your users. You’re much better off investing in the site itself and then the users will come to you anyway" according to Mr Lee

Meanwhile Seattle based Zillow.com claim the housing downturn is forcing consumers to "have a lot of questions about their homes and their local markets", supposedly driving record numbers to the site. COO Spencer Rascoff believes Zillow's users are "voracious for information" such as listings and data; but also potential buyers and sellers are "asking questions in Zillow Advice, and getting answers from real estate professionals in their communities."

UK wealth exodus accelerates

The UK is the most expensive location to raise children according to a new survey released by HSBC Bank International, coupled with low job prospects is forcing many high income earners to leave. Meanwhile Hong Kong and India have the highest salaries in the world for expats with half earning more than £100,000 p.a. The highest paying professions were
in finance and management with 43% of people working in these industries earning
a six figure salary. :

Cost of living appears to be also influencing decisions to leave. The survey said expats in the UK spend more of their income on accommodation than expats living anywhere else in the world, with accommodation by far the biggest expense.
Those considering moving home from the UK also cited limited career prospects as a further reason for leaving.
The survey found that high paying jobs in hedge funds and private equity were losing their appeal for expats, particularly after both areas have been hit hard by the financial turmoil of the last 18 months.
Higher paying expat positions in Asia might also be acting as a magnet for highly skilled expats working in the UK and other centres. According to the survey, Asia is home to the highest paid expats in the world, with one in four expats earning more than $200,000 per year in the region.
Last week, Knight Frank, the upmarket London-based estate agent, said 7% of non-doms have sold their house and left since October 2007, and 2% of high net worth individuals have left for more favourable tax jurisdictions.
[via Wealth Bulletin]

Nestoria celebrates ...

It's been just about three years since Nestoria.co.uk first stepped on the property search scene. Since then, the company seems to have gone from strength to strength, now operating in four European countries, as well as creating the experimental Lukku Labs, bringing innovative ideas such as Where can I live Nestoholic, and UK Property Vision.
CEO Ed Freyfogle was gracious to answer a few questions we put to him.

1) What do you see as the greatest accomplishment for Nestoria so far?

It's hard to believe how quickly the three years since we've launched nestoria.co.uk have gone by. On the one hand we've accomplished a fair amount - the business is running well in 4 major EU markets, and we have plans for further expansion. On the other hand, we still have so many ideas of things we'd like to do with the site and with our partners. It's always hard to find the balance between our ideas and our resources.

The thing I'm most proud of though is the great team we've been able to put together. It's fun to tackle complex problems with smart people from diverse backgrounds. We experiment quite a bit with new ideas both on Nestoria and generally (see our lokkulabs.com initiative). Sometimes things work well, sometimes they fail. We learn a lot and that keeps it interesting.

2) What impact has the economic downturn had on your business?

It's been good for us. When times are good, people keep doing what
they've been doing. It's only when times are tough that you start to
question things and ask where you're really getting value for
money. As a result I think agents are turning their money away from
traditional print advertising to online. On the one hand we're able to
benefit from more money in the sector, on the other hand there's a
chance to partner with traditional players who haven't yet found a
successful online strategy and are keen to catch up. Anytime change
happens there are risks, but also opportunities. We try to stay small
and nimble to seize the opportunities.

3) A lot of companies with similar models that started out the same time as you have almost completely vanished; yet you guys are ranked by Comscore as within the top ten of all property based websites in the UK. Why do you think that is?

I'd disagree. There were many visually similar sites that launched around the same time as we did, but all had different models. I think our strength has been in doing one thing consistently and well rather than switching models. Likewise I think users like the simplicity of our site.

In general regarding the landscape of other property websites, we don't take a competitive view. We view every other site out there as a potential partner. In fact of the top ten we work together with most of them (and are keen to work together with the others).

4) What do you think the future holds for the industry?

For the property industry, as with most industries, the internet will only become more important, not less. I think the traditional model of 'pay to list' that most of the portals currently offer will continue to exist, but will increasingly come under pressure from more pay for performance options.

From the user perspective it's very interesting to see the feature developments of things like video over the past few years. I think consumers will soon ask why there isn't a youtube style video of every property listing. One thing is clear, technological innovation doesn't slow down during a recession.

5) What does the future hold for Nestoria?

More partnerships, more countries and more product experiments (we hope to have some announcements soon). But our goal is not to grow the team much. We like being small and fast. So we're always keen to build stable, long-term partnerships that allow us to focus on the next thing.

6) Finally, the UK government intends to introduce a 'telephone tax' on UK landlines to fund the so-called 'digital future'. Do you think this is a good idea?

I'm of mixed opinion. On the one hand using the internet should be as cheap and easy as possible. On the other hand, there are costs involved in the infrastructure.

For me personally I'm fine with paying for things when there is a corresponding value and service. The problem comes when you just throw money into a black hole and it's unclear what the benefit is. It's exciting to see the hard work of folks like mySociety to use technology to bring transparency to government starting to pay off.

7) Any closing comments?

I'd really like to thank all of our team, our partners (especially those who bet on us in the beginning), and most of all the users. Their feedback helps us get better every day. Please keep it
coming!

Carnival 146 - the ride continues ...

Continuing on with last weeks roller coaster theme, the carnival ride continues this week with more sound advice for consumers and property professionals in these unstable times.

First off Zillow's Diane Tuman offered consumer insight into taking advantage of Federal Tax Credits for Energy Efficiency

Consumers who purchase and install specific products, such as energy-efficient windows, insulation, doors, roofs, and heating and cooling equipment in existing homes can receive a tax credit for 30% of the cost, up to $1,500, for improvements “placed in service” starting January 1, 2009, through December 31, 2010. So, if you were planning on doing these upgrades to your home anyway, make sure to follow the guidelines so you can get a tax credit!

Nickel submitted ideas on Paying Off Your Mortgage Early , including sound advice such as making overpayments, using the haphazard approach and of course refinancing. On the topic of refinancing, Handy Saputra at Home Loan Mortgage Resources offered tips on Finding the Lowest Refinance Mortgage Interest Rate before picking up the phone and calling your broker.

Finding the lowest mortgage refinance interest rate is going to require a bit of effort on your part. You may want to subscribe to an online service that alerts you of overnight rate changes. When the mortgage interest rate gets down to an acceptable low, then you will have to act fast to ensure it is locked in on your loan.

Meanwhile Jack Schmidt of SectorMatic Money Journal compared refinancing to someone having really big feet, urging us that if the shoe (and refinance) fits, by all means wear it!

With 'green shoots' supposedly appearing, many newly unemployed may be tempted to now get into the property industry. Sarah at the Higher Education and Career Blog suggests asking yourself a few questions before taking the plunge into current Real Estate Job Opportunities:

Can I work seven days a week if necessary? Can I work for a year with no income? Ask yourself questions like these, advises Barbara Lach, president of the Columbus, OH, Board of Realtors. “Real estate doesn’t work well as a hobby. You won’t be informed if you only work weekends. Your buyer won’t have the same advantages”.

Long ago, Jim Cronin recognized the importance of blogging in real estate, and now shows us The Easiest Way To Write 30 Real Estate Blog Articles Every 30 days. If you want to sell real estate in today's market then you better follow Jim's advice , and his example.

Recognizing fundamental changes are on the way in the real estate industry, Brian "Obi-Wan" Brady of Bloodhound thinks out the box, suggesting an open market NASDAQ type trading technology for real estate.

It’s so simple it’s silly; an open market, like the NASDAQ, for real estate. Watch offers for houses, in real-time, be accepted or declined. NASDAQ Level Two Quotes go beyond the bid and ask; they show the “size” of the market for those prices. The implementation of that transparency greatly reduced the previous NASDAQ market manipulation, that stymied the individual investor to favor institutions. It isn’t perfect but exposure to that data makes the market operate more efficiently. Apply that model to real estate and you will quickly determine what the “real” market is for a property.

And now for the really brave ...

Claiming that the San Diego market has gone 'white hot' Dan Melson of Searchlight Crusade suggests taking advantage of Segmented Markets , and provides examples of what's happening in his hometown of San Diego:

Market segmentation is what happens when certain things are much more in demand than others. Right now, the central area of San Diego is in high demand, simply because it's so close to everything. That's where the jobs are, all the cool nightclubs and restaurants, places to go and things to do ... the strip between Del Mar and Carlsbad has long been some of the most desired real estate in the world, and Rancho Santa Fe is the most expensive Zip Code in the country.

Lot's of great posts this week, keep 'em coming. Thanks to everybody who submitted and stay tuned to carnivalofrealestate.com for what's happening next week!

Political fallout and the property market

Guest post by: Distressed Assets

The political fall out from the recent resignations of Hazel Blears, James Purnell and now John Hutton continues with Gordon Brown starting to look more and more beleaguered by the day. It will be fascinating to see how events unfold in the coming days.
All of this (whatever your thoughts are on Gordon Brown and the Labour party) is bad news for Britain, at least in the shorter term. Sterling has already dipped again today against the Dollar and the Euro after a recent rally. Steady leadership in any crisis is of huge importance and unless the current problems are resolved soon any green shoots of recovery will be trampled on. For the investor looking for value, however, this may not be a bad thing….
Is market confidence returning? The UK property market seems finally to be showing some signs of life. Recent data released by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), Rightmove and Halifax have all indicated market improvement: a recent RICS report disclosed that new enquiries were up to the highest level for nearly a decade and that sales have started to pick up slowly (albeit from a low base). According to a Rightmove statement released in May,
"This month sees a jump in new sellers’ average asking prices more reminiscent of a boom market. This is the largest May rise Rightmove has measured since 2003, when property was seeing annual rises in excess of 15%. ..."
Finally, recent figures from Halifax show the house price to earnings ratio down from its height of 5.86 in the third quarter of 2007 to 4.35 in the first quarter of 2009, near to its long term average of 4.02.
Where does this leave us? There is still some way until we are out of the woods as the macro-economic picture remains bleak. Unemployment continues to rise (7.1% during the period January to March 2009 up 0.8 on the previous quarter). The UK economic outlook is resolutely poor with even Alastair Darling, predicting that the UK economy will shrink by 3.5% this year (and he has been known to underestimate economic woes at times).
In a strange way this is great news for some property investors. The last thing many of us want is the market to recover too quickly: this window of opportunity is one that should be grabbed with both hands and made the most of. There is still shortage of good housing stock and there is less pessimism than at the start of the year: the Council of Mortgage Lenders recently said that it is likely to revise downwards its “pessimistic” figure of 75,000 repossessions in 2009. Auction results are also picking up: I attended the Allsop auction in London earlier this week and it’s noticeable that prices (and interest) are recovering somewhat- many lots sold at over-inflated prices with less apparent value than earlier in the year.

Luxembourg strengthens tax exchange partnerships

Guest post: OECD
Paris 4 June 2009

Luxembourg has today signed a protocol to its double taxation convention with Denmark. The protocol, which allows exchange of bank information for tax purposes, brings the convention up to the OECD standard. Luxembourg signed similar protocols with France, on 3 June 2009, and the Netherlands, on 29 May 2009. In addition to these countries, Luxembourg’s tax agreements with Bahrain, India and the United States also meet the OECD standard on exchange of information.
Having withdrawn its reservation to the OECD standard on exchange of information in March 2009, Luxembourg has made significant progress in updating its treaty network in a very short time. Negotiations are also under way with other countries to update the exchange of information provisions in Luxembourg’s bilateral treaties with them.
Welcoming the recent signings, Angel Gurria, OECD Secretary General said: “ This is very good news. These agreements with six of its key economic partners show that Luxembourg has joined the international drive to combat tax havens and is moving swiftly towards substantial implementation of the OECD standard.”

For more information visit www.oecd.org/tax

estatecreate relaunches single property websites for clients

Today estatecreate.com re-launches its service allowing estate agents to easily create stand alone single property websites for their clients. The sites can have their own personal domain name and carry the estate agent’s branding. estatecreate is the first company to offer this service to estate agents in the UK.

“For as little as £2 per month per site estate agents can offer their clients their own stand
alone website with a bespoke URL. It’s a great way to differentiate your service and win an instruction by showcasing your client’s property. estatecreate single property sites are the 21st Century’s answer to property brochures,” ” said Henry Yates, founder and CEO of estatecreate.com.
Greene and Co's Jacqui Daley, said: “Our sales team love estatecreate as it gives them a great product to offer clients. It helps them win instructions. We are also excited about using estatecreate for New Developments as it will make it easy to create a website that showcases the development and the detail of each unit”.

Dramatic fall in number of UK millionaires

Guest post by Douglas McWilliams ceo
centre for economics and business research

The recession has had a big impact on the number of millionaires in the UK. When we last looked at the number of millionaires in August 2006, we estimated that there were then 376,000 millionaires (up from 230,000 in 2003) but that this would roughly double to 760,000 by 2010.
Our latest estimates suggest that there are now only 242,000 millionaires this year after the number peaked at 489,000 in 2007 –and shows that membership of the millionaires club was only fleeting for many.
The halving in the number of millionaires reflects the collapse in the property market, the fall in the values of shares and the 70% drop in city bonuses. It looks as though the experience for millionaires is relatively similar to that chronicled by the Sunday Times for their Rich List, which showed a fall in the number of UK billionaires this year from 75 in 2008 to 43 this year. The Sunday Times estimated that the wealth of those on the Rich List had fallen by 38% in the past year. The wealth of the average UK millionaire has fallen by rather less than this –we estimate by 24%. The difference almost certainly reflects the much higher levels of borrowing in relation to assets for billionaires than for millionaires and the different pattern of asset holdings (billionaires have less than 10% of their assets in property whereas the average millionaire in 2007 had 42% of assets in property).
The reason why the drop in the number of millionaires is so large is because a very large number of people had just crept over the millionaire threshold in the period from 2003 to 2007 –when the number of millionaires rose from 230,000 to 489,000. This was mainly caused by the rise in
house prices over that period. Having just crept over the threshold, most of these people have crept back under it again –many perhaps without ever knowing that they had become millionaires for a temporary period.
The decline in wealth for people in this category is reflected in sales of luxury products. Sales of Bentley cars are down this year to date by 66%; sales of BMWs are down by 35% against an overall decline in car sales of 29%. With property prices near to bottoming out, we would expect the number of millionaires to start to rise again in 2011.

© centre for economics and business research ltd, 2009