Trade Me king of internet real estate

The battle for internet real estate buyers is heating up, as new entrant Trade Me flexes its muscle.

Trade Me, the wildly popular online auction house, began posting residential property on its website on June 16 and new research out yesterday from Nielsen//NetRatings suggests it is the most popular search engine for house hunters and tenants.

Trade Me has 10,000 properties advertised for sale, down from 12,000 just before Christmas, but an executive is predicting a shakeup in the sector soon.

"After being asleep for a long time, there's been a war waged in this real estate area last year, and it's likely there'll be some casualties this year," said Michael O'Donnell, business manager at Trade Me in Wellington. "People can't afford to invest limitlessly, and some companies which have spent a lot upgrading their sites are not getting good returns."

O'Donnell said 1100 real estate agents advertise houses on Trade Me, including Ray White Real Estate, The Professionals, Tommys Real Estate and First National Real Estate.

But O'Donnell said the latest research showed house buyers cooled their fingertips last month and left the internet in droves.

The number of web browsers visiting property sites fell 18 per cent compared with November. Overall, the drop in internet usage last month was 7 per cent.


Property online (search engine browser hits*):
trademe.co.nz (property) 170,343
trademe.co.nz (rental properties) 87,918
realenz.co.nz 85,234
harcourts.co.nz 84,317
open2view.com 61,236
barfoot.co.nz 40,323
nzherald.co.nz (now search4homes) 38,425
allrealestate.co.nz 35,487
qv.co.nz 33,497

* December data, research by Nielsen//NetRatings Market Intelligence