Real Estate Websites Increase Attraction

For immediate release

Real Estate Websites Increase Attraction to Property Buyers and Sellers

Auckland, 19 July 2007 - Nielsen//NetRatings today released information from its second annual report on the New Zealand real estate market showing that property buyers and sellers are spending on average more than 2.5 hours a week (161 minutes) on specialist real estate websites, such as realestate.co.nz and trademe.co.nz/property, to research real estate information. The report, based on an online survey, which ran on popular New Zealand real estate websites, also shows that respondents are spending 106 minutes a week on real estate vendor company websites.

Furthermore, 29% of respondents said they intend to use specialist real estate websites more frequently in the next six months and 16% said they intend to use real estate vendor company websites more frequently.

The results are backed up by Nielsen//NetRatings’ Market Intelligence data which shows a 26% increase in traffic to real estate websites in New Zealand year-on-year to June 2007 and a 27% increase in engagement (pages read per visitor) on those websites in the same time period.*

The Real Estate Report’s survey respondents also regard the internet as a good option for researching properties. 93% rated specialist real estate websites as a useful or very useful media option, and 86% rated vendor company real estate websites likewise.

Tony Boyte, Senior Analyst for Nielsen//NetRatings, said: “Not only are people using the internet more to do research on buying or selling their next property, but they are finding it increasingly necessary to receive timely, actionable and visualised property information. The internet as a media option for researching property is raising the bar on people’s information requirements before they commit to a purchase decision.”

However, while internet users are increasing their use of the web as a primary media option for researching real estate, they still have a wish list of what they would like to see added to the sites that they visit in order to improve their real estate research. The top three additions they requested were the addresses of properties for sale (92% said this would be a “very useful” addition), accurate price ranges of properties for sale (91%), and larger and higher quality photos (86%). Also very high on the list were requests for property location maps, checks on recently sold properties in the area, property floor plans, and e-mail alerts for properties that fit personal criteria.

Boyte went on to say, “While more and more people are turning to the internet to meet their requirements for buying and selling property, there is still ample room for innovation. It will be very interesting to see how much the industry picks up on these user-driven expectations over the next year.”

* Source: Nielsen//NetRatings Market Intelligence June 2006 and June 2007: comparisons of total number of unique browsers and engagement (page impressions/unique browsers) year-on-year

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Editor’s Note: Please source data to The Nielsen//NetRatings Real Estate Market Report, June 2007. The report is based on a site-intercept survey on New Zealand real estate websites from 10th April – 15th May 2007 with a sample size of 1161 respondents and a margin of error of around 3%.

About Nielsen//NetRatings

Nielsen//NetRatings is the global standard for internet audience measurement and analysis, and is the industry’s premier source for online advertising intelligence with its SiteCensus, Market Intelligence, AdIntelligence and Custom Research services. Covering 70 percent of the world’s internet usage, the Nielsen//NetRatings services offer syndicated internet and digital media research reports and custom-tailored data to help companies gain valuable insight into their business. For more information, please visit www.nielsen-netratings.co.nz.

ENDS

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