NAEA to launch property website

Permalink: NAEA to launch property website
by Kay Murchie

The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) has announced its intention to launch Property Live, a new free website which will allow its 10,000 members to advertise properties for sale free of charge.

The NAEA, which represents residential estate agents, said it was acting on the concerns of members who have been affected by the credit crunch and hopes to launch the site by early autumn.

The fall in house prices and the mortgage squeeze has meant that many estate agents have been forced to close or slash jobs.

The launch of Property Live has will no doubt be a devastating blow to other property websites such as Rightmove and Findaproperty.com, which charge a monthly subscription of up to £495 to advertise houses and flats on their property websites.

Following the news, shares in Rightmove, which is the UK’s largest online housing website, fell 14¼p to 305¾p after it shrugged off the announcement and described it as a ‘re-launch’ of a property portal first launched by the trade body eight years ago.

Rightmove represents over 90% of the UK’s estimated 20,000 estate agents and claims to be the largest property website, with over one million homes advertised on its site.

Commenting on the new website, Peter Bolton King, NAEA’s chief executive, said the launch is in response to our members and is not being done to compete with Rightmove.

Yesterday, in its latest survey of the housing market, Rightmove said sellers are now being more realistic with property prices after figures show that asking prices are being slashed.

Rightmove said sellers are asking £5,403 less for their homes than they were only a month ago, this represents a 2.3% drop.