Everything changing. We’re living fast forward, and the advent of mobile phones and computers has changed the trajectory of everything around us – including how we conduct business.
Now, a growing number of Londoners they’re using the same technology to expand the way they sell homes, and the messaging app WhatsApp is emerging as a new home for luxury listings. Off-market home sales surged in the British capital in the final three months of 2022, according to U.K. estate agents Hamptons International, accounting for more than one-in-five (22.3%) transactions — its highest percentage on record.
Hamptons senior analyst, David Fell, said that WhatsApp allows some vendors to “test the water” discretely without leaving a “digital footprint” and potentially hurting future sales prospects. “Sellers have been increasingly looking to test pricing quietly without leaving a digital footprint, particularly if they chose to take their home off the market to try again in 6 or 12 months,” he said. London’s luxury real estate market, in particular, has led the off-market trend, and estate agents noted that the “anonymity” of such transactions is especially valued by buyers and sellers of properties in the £20 million-plus range — both in London and the surrounding counties.
James Myers, director of London-based prime real estate agency Oliver James, told CNBC an increasing number of high-end private transactions are also being conducted via messaging tools like WhatsApp. “With the added benefit of the new tools … it [has] allowed estate agents to promote their properties via the brochure section, which, as a result, has helped to showcase the property to a wider audience and aid the sale of property,” said Myers. To read the complete article, click here.
