In our recent marketing efforts we've talked a lot about the new development-specific listing on Property24 and why our clients should be publishing their developments to it. Developers tend to get it but Agencies don't. The reason tends to be the same; most Estate Agencies (at least the big ones) already have a feed to Property24, often through their own proprietary software or via PropControl. They often use this feed to publish an example unit for a development onto Property24 so they feel like they "are already on Property24". 

But here is the thing, we aren't talking about that. You see, trying to fit an entire development description into what is meant to be a single residential listing is always going to be a hack. Yes, when there is nothing better, it's a clever hack but it will never do an entire development justice because it was never designed to.

So what's the difference?

Developments have a dedicated tab and page

You can read a bit more about this in my previous article but basically when somebody drives past a development and then searches online for it, this is the tab people are going to go to first. If your development isn't listed here then that person may assume you are not listed on that portal at that point.

Plans

A single residential listing is an example of one unit in a development, but generally developments have more then one option to choose from. How does the house hunter know that? Maybe they arrive at the two bed unit but they are looking for a three bedroom one - they'll never know that your development has that on offer unless they go back to the search and trawl through the other listings in that area. The New Development Listing solves this by providing all the plans in one place in a very similar way to which HelloHouse has done for the last two years. See example below:

Facilities

There is often more to a development then just the houses. Some developments are like whole new cities with gyms, hospitals and even top notch schools. The New Development Listing gives the house hunter a list of facilities available on that development, meaning they are more aware of what's on offer and if it's suitable.

Last but not least is that Developments are selling new houses and not previously owned ones (at least not yet) and so the New Development Listing gives the user the ability to separate their searching into the two categories that they belong.

Over the last three months those that have 'got it' have borne the fruit of increased enquiries and interest in their developments but there are a few that still haven't seen the light. This article is for you.