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TikTok is about to revolutionise the way house-hunting is done, a developer has boldly predicted.
St. Modwen Homes believes the massively popular video platform will be a game-changer that will take over as the number one property search method.
Brits can say goodbye to the old-school house-hunting routine.”
“Brits can say goodbye to the old-school house-hunting routine as we enter 2024,” the developer says.
“We understand, scrolling through endless property listings can be a bit overwhelming.
Snappy
“TikTok’s short and snappy videos will be the game-changer for those seeking their dream home (as well as selling their existing home),” it says.
St. Modwen points to recent research showing that TikTok searches relating to homes for sale are on the rise, with the hashtag #houseforsale hitting a 1.4 billion views alone on the platform, and #homesforsale reaching 333 million views.
Other popular property-related searches on the short-form video platform include:
#propertytour – 682 million views
#ukhousetour – nearly 16 million views
#londonproperties – nearly 11 million views
#homewalkthrough – 5 million views
Plus, TikTok users clearly have money to spend, with the platform recently becoming the first non-gaming mobile app to generate $10 billion in consumer spending.
Alison MacLean, Head of Marketing at St. Modwen, says: “In 2024, we’re predicting a major shift, especially among the younger generation, who are turning to TikTok over traditional property portals for a more engaging and interactive home-buying experience.
As the property market evolves, TikTok is a game-changer.”
“As the property market evolves, TikTok is a game-changer, offering an unprecedented platform for professionals and individuals alike to showcase properties,” she says.
“If you’re selling, using TikTok can boost your property’s visibility and help you sell it quicker.”
TikTok is not a collated search engine though, one of our publications Proptech-X has the (hashtag) #realestate on every article, #realestate has 4.2M followers, big metric but does it mean that article is read by 4.2 readers a day. Same with TikTok, hamster doing handstands, 35M views, but if you were promoting hamster training how many of the 35M viewers would be your client? Totally agree TikTok is useful for agents, even did a piece in The Times two years ago advocating it, BUT the kicker is these platforms also want you to pay cash to sell your services and products and property. The real winners are the the digital advertisers, portal spend is now bleeding into digital spend, Rightmove’s ace was in 2000, agents were up for a better alternative to print advertising, but the web in 2024 has numerous digital channels that different folk digitally graze on.
It’s often reported that young people today cannot afford to get on to the housing ladder, a sentiment that I share. Yet this this story says that very same audience is where agents should spend the advertising revenue. I freely admit to being out of touch with regard to Tik Tok. Are any other agents out there seeing good conversion from this approach?