Portal targets ‘eager movers’ in bid to end stock supply shortage

Zoopla’s chief operating officer says the portal has made progress for agents in 2021 but recognises there’s more to do next year.

Andy Marshall, in an exclusive article for Estate Agent Today, says his portal’s upcoming marketing campaign will be ‘eager movers’ - a bid to solve the biggest problem of the past 12 months, a shortage of supply.

Here’s his article: 

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Key takeaways from a red hot market 

Without a doubt, 2021’s market will be defined by the pandemic-led reassessment of home. With one in 16 homes having changed hands this year, it’s been the busiest property market since 2007. 

This increased demand, combined with a lack of supply, is reflected in house price growth, with average UK prices rising by £15,500 in the past 12 months, and the South East and South West recording average growth of more than £22,000 per property. 

This lack of supply highlights the increased appetite for space among home movers since the start of the pandemic, with more demand for larger homes, especially in commuter zones and more rural areas, ultimately boosting average prices.

Setting agents up for success as we enter 2022

At Zoopla, we’re already looking forward to how we can best support our agents and housebuilders enjoy a fast start into the new year. 

We’ve heard from our customers time and time again that the supply and demand imbalance is an ongoing challenge. This is why our target audience for our upcoming marketing campaign - which you’ll see across your screens and social media imminently - is a high-value cohort with properties to sell - also known as ‘eager movers’.

By getting this audience to search on Zoopla, we’ll not only be surfacing ways for these consumers to find a local agent, but also ensuring that when an applicant submits a lead on a listing, they’re specifically asked if they have a property to sell. This will give the agent the additional insight they need to act on the potential vendor opportunity within their applicant leads.

Aside from all things marketing, we’ll also be looking to continue delivering on our Vision in the coming year. Over the past 12 months, we’ve made great strides through the acquisition of Yourkeys, which enabled us to provide more transparency to all parties involved in the new homes buying process. In addition, we have made significant improvements to our market-leading retargeting tool, Adreach, which has boosted high-quality lead volumes to housebuilders by 44% compared to last year.

We also launched In-Search Ads in July to provide more brand-building opportunities for our customers at an affordable cost and deliver on the ambition set out in the Vision to guarantee regular innovation that drives growth in revenues and for the broader category. This has also provided a strong return on investment to customers, with 110m impressions delivered to consumers on behalf of agents and housebuilders since launch.

All in all, we’ve made progress for you in the last twelve months when it comes to delivering on our Vision, but we know there’s a lot more to be done to provide even better results and value for our partners.

Unleashing untapped potential for agents 

Looking ahead to January, we’ll be doubling down on working closely with our customers to unleash the untapped potential that remains in the market. We believe that the trend of shifting homeowner priorities that resulted from the pandemic still has further to run, with the search for space still at the forefront of many homemovers’ minds and the partial return to the office for many pushing features like home offices further up the agenda. 

We’re keen to continue to work closely with our agents to ensure they’re leveraging this re-assessment of home to their advantage and making simple changes such as ensuring they’re adding keywords to their listings for these desirable features like gardens, home offices and great wifi to make the most of this opportunity.

For the first time ever, we'll also be surfacing the actual listings available on Zoopla in our marketing campaign through channels like social media. This is stock that we know suits our audience's evolving needs, and is an ongoing effort to use Zoopla data, expertise and of course our agent partnerships to help people across the journey.

And finally, our Lettings Advisory Board remains a priority for us and is a real force for good in the industry. We’ll be harnessing this to support the successful and sustainable growth of the lettings market, while also ensuring renters and landlords remain at the heart of all decision making. 

For now, I’ll wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and I’ll look forward to connecting again in January.