Internet Research Decides Most Realty Purchases: Google Study
Most real estate developers resort to print and television ads for marketing, while dedicating only about 6 to 7 per cent of their marketing budgets online. A recent study by Google proves that developers are playing it wrong, as more than half of the home buyers make decisions influenced by Internet research, in comparison with other means of advertising.
Zinnov, the marketing research firm, conducted this study and presented relevant data on which these results are based. The study revealed that in the cases of both residential and commercial property, including rentals, the overall influence of the Internet on the transaction value for real estate came up to about $43 billion. This number was split between residential and commercial property in the proportion of $31 billion to $12 billion respectively.
This survey was conducted across 15 cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Lucknow, Bangalore, Indore, Jaipur, Pune, Coimbatore, Chandigarh, Nagpur, and the National Capital Region. About 6,000 people participated in the study. This trend of primarily searching for property online was observed both in metro and tier-2 cities.
Internet was among the top three sources of real estate information for the respondents. Nitin Bawankule, the industry director of Google India said that it’s clear Internet is rising as the top destination for research purposes before taking final decisions on expensive purchases. That this holds for real estate transactions shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Source: Mint
