Buyers ignore most important features when viewing ho...

A new analysis of buyers’ actions during viewings suggests many effectively ignore the truly important features, and are instead distracted by items which are not even part of the property.

Zoopla is trialling eye-tracking software during the viewing process, to assess where real home-hunters focus their attention during a viewing.

Last week there was much publicity for that fact that Zoopla found buyers spend just 34 seconds looking at a bedroom, and just 1.2 minutes in the kitchen.

Now it’s been revealed that rather than focusing their attention on important things such as the condition of the boiler, water pressure or signs of damage or damp, homebuyers are more likely to spend time admiring items that wouldn’t even be there when they moved in, such as ornaments, furnishings and decorations. Mirrors, plants and pictures proved particularly popular.

In the hallway, while the coat rack, rug and ornaments were viewed for over a second on average (1.8, 1.2 and 1.1 seconds respectively), structural elements of the property like the ceiling, flooring, radiator and walls were looked at for under a second, or not at all.

Many participants were distracted by the feature walls in the bedroom, returning their gaze up to 19 times in various rooms.

Despite being given a full tour of the house, trial participants were least interested in flooring, the roof and the ceiling; and they didn’t look at radiators for longer than 0.5 seconds in any room despite being a crucial component of a home’s heating system.

The home’s structure including flooring and ceilings earned 38% of the share of attention, with cosmetics and furnishings earning 54%.

The trial follows research from Zoopla amongst 2,000 homebuyers who have attended house viewings in the past five years.

It found that just half (50%) of prospective homebuyers check something as important as the boiler and fewer check the water pressure (25%), wifi strength (24%), attic (23%) and cellar (17%).

However, when it comes to cosmetic features and furnishings, these garner a lot more attention. A quarter admit to looking at pictures of the family that live there (25%) and their home technology (24%). Furthermore 31% look at their flowers, 37% admire their furniture and 14% could be stretching the boundaries of what is acceptable by rummaging through drawers and cabinets, and one in eight (13%) see how comfortable the owners' bed and sofa is.

Two-fifths (38%) don’t check for damp and three fifths (57%) don’t check for condensation according to the consumer research.

This corresponds with the eye-tracking experiment’s results which showed that while viewers were checking out the bath and shower, the ceilings, which are most prone to damp and condensation in bathrooms, were looked at for the lowest period of time at just 0.34 seconds, taking up just 3% of the share of attention.