Johannesburg - The internet is radically changing the face of the housing market.
More and more prospective homebuyers are nowadays first logging onto the Web in their search for the ideal house.
Foreign buyers, too, are increasingly using the internet to investigate residential markets in other countries.
There are even some who buy without physically seeing the property.
They blindly trust the websites that offer instant access to an enormous variety of properties as well as a wealth of information to help prospective purchasers in their buying decisions.
For foreign prospective buyers this is a convenient and quick way to investigate the housing market in every country, explains Andrew Golding, chief executive of Pam Golding Estates (PGE).
In the seven months to end-July PGE sold properties worth R440m, with an average purchase price of R3.5m, to foreigners. Of these sales, 55% were the result of enquiries via the company's website.
The properties included a cottage in Montagu in the Western Cape bought by a British couple for R1.1m, and a 250ha farm near Tulbagh acquired by a British buyer for R5m.
PGE, which has a relationship with British property giant Savills, receives 100 000 unique visitors from 176 countries on its website every month.
Anthony Stroebel, the group's marketing director, says buyers who buy without seeing the property are more the exception than the rule. They generally want an investment property with the aim of letting it.
New figures from Property24.com, one of the biggest property portals in the country, indicate that interest from prospective homebuyers is rapidly rising.
Christo Wiid, general manager of the portal, says the new trend is an increase in the number of visitors perusing the full reports on specific properties, looking for further details about the properties and the agents involved.
In July 523 838 visitors opened up full reports, compared with 461 021 in January.
He says the number of prospective buyers who, through the Property24 portal, ask agents to phone them, has also risen, indicating new life in the market. In July there were 238 061 agent referrals, compared with 119 643 in January.
In July the portal attracted 182 210 unique visitors.
Stroebel reckons that, although the Internet can never replace the personal interaction between an agent and a client in the buying process, it does play a key role in familiarising a prospective buyer with the company and the estate agent.
- Sake24.com
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