A free-to-list property portal says it’s uniquely positioned to attract foreign buyers and investors interested in purchasing in major UK cities
A recently-launched free-to-list portal says it’s uniquely positioned to attract overseas buyers and investors interested in purchasing in major UK cities.
Residential People – launched in March and now with an estimated 200,000-plus listings from over 1,600 agents based in the UK, UAE, South Africa and India – says this international perspective could be a valuable source of leads from overseas investors.
The portal says it has found that a growing number of searches on its UK site come from prospective overseas buyers looking to relocate to the UK or investors keen to enter the market.
Residential People co-director, Christopher May says that one of their key selling points is that they are international. It is a fact that thousands of properties in certain areas – especially commercial and new build apartments – are not being bought by locals but international buyers.
He says that in the UAE, for example, after only a few months, they have a 75 per cent market share of all properties, and the audience is intrinsically linked to their UK site.
The portal has now registered in China, too, opening up a still more valuable international market of potential buyers, May says.
Figures produced by The Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate shows that London is the number one ranking city in the world for capital appreciation and retains huge interest from investors, despite uncertainty over Brexit.
May says foreign investors keen to capitalise on opportunities to enter into the UK market can utilise Residential People’s database of listings to seek UK deals across other major cities such as Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh.
The portal – which says it wants to work with agents to build an alternative and cheaper listings service to those offered by existing portals – says that approaching a quarter of its current 200,000 property inventory comes from the UK.
Agents on board include Belvoir and Countrywide’s commercial arm, Lambert Smith Hampton.
He says their USP is simple. Every agent they have spoken to is concerned about the rising costs of property portals; Residential People is a free to list global property portal that helps to eliminate some of the expenses agencies face.
