The
huge opportunities in the Real Estate and Construction sectors are the bane of
online property listing businesses in cities like Lagos, Port-Harcourt, Abuja, Kano
and others with the rapid urbanization and population growth.
These
businesses have afforded Nigerians opportunity of selling, buying and renting
different property. From low price to high price property, Nigerians are still
patronising the listing portals as soon as the need for selling, buying or
renting unfolds. Like what obtainable in other countries, Nigerian property
listing businesses exist with the main purpose of connecting sellers with individual
and corporate buyers.
However,
Infoprations’ analysis suggests that
innovative solutions remain elusive in the property listing business. Analysis
shows that leading listing websites or businesses in the country have similar
business and revenue models. Analysis also reveals that the critical features on
their websites, where sellers and buyers congregate, are the same.
Infoprations
specifically discovered that 35% of the 18 leading players focus on the rent
segment of the market while 30% are concentrating their resources on sell
segment. On the revenue streams, analysis reveals that featured listing and
advertisement are the main sources of revenue for the businesses.
On the
information sharing, blog is being used mostly by the businesses followed by
news platform. This result aligns with recent
evidence where blog is 17th favoured social medium for
interacting with property buyers and renters. Out of the 12 critical website
features for property listing business analysed, the result indicates that agent
database, free property listing, unique selling proposition of listed property
and request a property are mostly embraced at the expense of testimonials,
property value calculation, home loans, talk to expert, user database and
advice.
These insights have established that
prospective property listing business entrepreneurs should tweak the current
business model and website design elements being used by the existing
businesses. For instance, having testimonial in forms of written (reviews) and
video is a sure way of grabbing buyers and sellers’ attention, and developing
confidence on services.
Buyers equally need to know the worth
of a property in a particular location. Mere listing and description of
property’s unique benefits cannot generate the needed leads. For example,
buyers in highbrow areas in Lagos and Port-Harcourt will appreciate specific
guidance on the worth of property listed in the current market.
Another feature that must be considered
by the future entrepreneurs is loan service. This is essential because analysis
shows that a number of properties have been listed for more than two years,
indicating that prospective buyers did not have enough funds to buy the
properties. Potential entrepreneurs can have strategic partnership with banks towards
home loans provision to the buyer easily.
The idea of aggregating
sellers and buyers alone should also be revisited. Property listing companies
that prioritise knowledge and advisory service have the better chance of
getting more sellers and buyers. The market is more of knowledge based than
resource one. Both sellers and buyers need to understand their domains through
appropriate insights on the listed property and locations.
As much as possible,
future businesses need to devise means of educating buyers and renters on the
legal position, disputes (if any) on the listed property. This will clarify confusion
and doubt. The end result would be more agents listing and search for property by
the buyers and renters.
Comments
Post a Comment