We’ve highlighted the 3 key lessons learnt from the last 3 months (2023) for the UK Property market nationally, specifically the property market London and looking at the valuable house valuation leads.
As winter draws to a close, we’ve started our Q1 Property market analysis for the UK property market. Our market intelligence tool has crawled the Google search result pages and organised the data, showing who’s survived the turbulent start to the year and who has some catching up to do.
Market Intelligence Definition
Market intelligence is the information and data gathered from research into the market of a specific industry. This can include looking at Google performance data, location visibility or audience demographic data. The point of market intelligence is to better understand the competitor landscape and the industry.
We run market intelligence tools for a number of industries, the legal sector, professional co working spaces and the UK property market. Within the market intelligence for the property market we look at a number of areas, keywords and locations so we can analyse what the SERPs look like if someone is to search ‘property market London’ for example.
Property Market Analysis
With Q1 drawing to a close, our property market analysis has shown the effects of those who pulled back on their PPC spending at the start of the year:
They are dropping down the UK property market leaderboard.
-
The top 15 spots are held by digital agencies who ramped up their spend as the industry took a hit late last year. They future-proofed their marketing and are now reaping the rewards.
-
They are ranking higher on Google search results, for less money and gaining 10X as much traffic as those who rank lower on the page.
Usually, the top spots nationally are held by a mix of the portals, giant agents (purple bricks, Hamptons) and comparison sites but not this month. This month we could clearly see who had been brave and who played it safe.
Lesson 1:
Take risks. If you know your market and you know your customers, you can take advantage of circumstances when others are too scared to jump.
Valuations
When analysing the UK property market Google search results, the most valuable search term ‘ how much is my house worth?’ is currently so competitive that agencies are only ranking via their paid ads.
Organic SEO just isn’t enough.
-
For the first time in our data history, a traditional agency is outperforming the GIANT Purplebricks on paid results for the valuation search terms.
-
Even the portals (Zoopla & OnTheMarket) are spending to rank for this search term. Showing just how valuable valuation searches are.
Lesson 2:
Knowing what the industry giants are doing is vital. Keep an eye on your direct competitors and the big players.
Property market London
When we look at the market intelligence for the competitive capital city, we see that the portals are struggling to keep up with the aggressive marketing campaign of the London agencies.
Foxtons ranks 2nd in the property market London and Winkworth, Dexters and Savills are all sitting comfortably in the top 10.
-
This is unusual, these top spots are usually reserved for portals, comparison sites and digital agencies with huge budgets to spend on Google ads.
-
I think, as we saw nationally, a few smart agencies upped their advertising when everyone else was pulling back and now are in a fantastic position for growth.
-
2023 is still to be a turbulent year for the property market but those who thought ahead and can see past this initial downturn will be reaping the rewards in Q2.
Lesson 3:
Don’t sit still. Your competitors aren’t.
How to understand your Google visibility report
For an in-depth step-by-step guide on how to understand your market intelligence Google Report – read our ‘how to’ guide. This will take you through all the sections in detail and explain how to use your report to inform your marketing strategy moving forward.
Your report is split into two main sections : Results and Competitors.
Results
The property market analysis for your estate agency is shown in the results section. It outlines your online visibility across your key operating locations.
Splitting the data up into your map listings, paid search and organic rankings. It will also highlight for which search terms your rank highest for. Very useful for your SEO strategy.
Also showing the number of:
- Searches covered
- Locations covered
- Your average position on Google results page
Your most active search locations are shown in a list and visually, by county and town. These are the UK locations that you perform best in.
(we also run the data by postcode so if you are interested in that, get in touch).
Then below that, the distribution of the different search terms you were found on, split into paid, map and organic.
Finally, your highest ranked searches, with the keyword, location, type and position on the search results page.
Competitors
-
This section ranks you against the local competitors in your area.
-
Split by organic search, paid and map listings you can see who ranks above you, below you and what your areas of weakness are.
-
This is arguably the most exciting part of the report.
Q1 lessons for UK property market
This month’s Google visibility data has provided valuable insights into the UK property market, revealing the importance of taking risks, keeping an eye on competitors, and staying ahead of the game.
To succeed in the property market, it’s essential not to sit still and be ready to adapt and evolve. Requesting a specific company-focused report from Roar can also help in identifying best-performing locations, strongest competitors, and market gaps to take advantage of.
FAQs about property market analysis
What is the forecast for the UK property market?
The forecast for the UK property market is looking up. Whilst previously prices were seen to be dropping and sellers were having trouble finding forward buyers. Things seem to be levelling out, industry professionals think the rest of this year will be similar to what we saw in 2019.
Will house prices drop in 2023?
House prices are now not expected to drop in 2023. In January every estate agent and house buyer in the country was asking ‘will house prices drop in 2023’ but now, with the property market UK strengthening again we are seeing that prices are likely to rise once again. They stayed constant in February but with the busy spring ahead of us. The forecast is looking up.
What is the purpose of market intelligence?
The purpose of market intelligence is to better understand your competitor landscape. See who is performing well, where you could steal traffic from another agency and to better understand your own digital marketing efforts.
