International Property Journal - News and information on global property markets

TDPG goes Global in a bid to hold the line against the Google invasion.

TDPG the second largest property portal group in the UK goes Global in a bid to hold the line against the Google invasion.

The TDPG owned portal, PrimeLocation.com holds sway as the “go-to” search for luxury and International properties. In an move to both beef up their International offering, and extend their footprint outside of the UK, TDPG has signed an agreement with the Immobel Group in the United States to offer listing placement for US listings on both Prime location and Find a Property to Immobel’s Realtor client base of approximately 500,00.

US Realtors will have the opportunity to send listings data sent directly to TDPG via Immobel and be billed monthly for the listings they wish to promote on PrimeLocation or Find A Property. Immobel Group CEO, Janet Choynowski expects demand to be strong. “TDPG has compelling statistics”, Choynowski said “ and UK buyers are among the most active International buyers for US properties in many of our markets today. PrimeLocation.com alone gives access to over 2 million unique viewers each month. PrimeLocation.com has a very select group of viewers who are proven to take action. In fact, an agent is contacted every 2.16 seconds with a real lead through the TDPG portals. We believe this service will be a valuable addition to the Global marketing efforts for US Realtors looking to attract serious buyers from the UK.”

According to GlobalEdge.co.uk today, the Digital Property Group (TDPG), which owns Findaproperty.com and Primelocation.com,still does not believe that Google is a major threat to paid-for portals.

Following the launch last week of Google Real Estate search in England,TDPG Sales Director Jon Notley, said: “We’ve observed the build up to Google’s UK launch with great interest and noted that their presence in the US and Australian property markets hasn’t been to the detriment of the established property portal brands…In fact, the Australian brands, for example, have gone from strength to strength”.

This is important news for TDPG, since their business model depends on agents willingness to pay for advertising on their portals. However, adding a further half a million agents in the United States to their “home market” is not a bad insurance policy.Rajeen Doobay, the International Sales Manager for TDPG said “ This is a fantastic opportunity for TDPG to expand Internationally. With the Immobel Group we found a great partner to bring the service into the US market. We are already looking at other ways to leverage this relationship.”

Consumers want to know they are looking at the largest number of properties in the area they are interested in and that they can view them in a quick and easy way that can be cross-referenced with local information and market data. While Google has a huge advantage in the provision of local information, Rightmove and TDPG have spent millions building their listings inventory so are not about to give them away free.

Interestingly, Zoopla, which also has a claim to be number two player in the market (see below*), is working with Google. It won’t be long before Google has the capability to offer a similar user experience to Rightmove or the TDPG sites, should it wish to do so.

The key issue is marketing. If Google decides to promote its property service extensively in its organic search, it could take some serious market share from the portals. “The question is: Would this be a profitable strategy for Google? If the answer is no, Notley could be right; but I wouldn't put your house on it.” said Ashley Rigg, publisher of GlobalEdge.co.uk For a more detailed discussion of the issues on www.GlobalEdge.co.uk, click here.

*According to ComScore, taken together, TDPG websites have the second-highest number of unique monthly visitors after Rightmove. However, on its own, Zoopla has the second-highest number of monthly visitors, after Rightmove.

Excerpts from www.GlobalEdge.co.uk