Natalie To both buy and to sell, the best international property portals give a great insight of the global real estate industry. Displaying apartments, villas, offices, buy to let, and commercial properties for sale in many countries, some portals fare better than others for ease of use and accurate descriptions. Some portals are the backbone of the industry providing a lot of benefit, whether you are a buyer looking for many choices, or an agent looking for maximum exposure to a global audience.
Such is the competitiveness of portals to provide the best experience to internet providers, many have gone past the traditional listings to add resources, and inspirations. Functions like alerts for a new listing, blog topics, home improvements ideas and investor tips are a core feature of their website. As a leading overseas property agent, we are in the know as to which are the best sites to use, so let us look at them.
Best International Property Portals
1: A Place in the Sun
It is hard to deny the success of a Place in the Sun since they are more than just a listings website. Developing to become a leader in exhibitions, they also list professional services like lawyers and currency exchanges firms and are the official website of Channel 4 TV. Major countries featured are Turkey, Cyprus, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and France, although, over 20 locations appear in their portfolio. Place in the Sun will be of particular use to anyone looking to sell or buy new developments, and investment opportunities as these are heavily featured.
To read testimonials and about people’s buying experience in another country, their case studies make for exciting reading. Their “hot properties” gallery is based on the number of views over the last seven days, but we find one major fault. The one difference compared to other major portals, is that listings do not display the agent. Instead, they send your enquiries onto the agent which hampers the process should you want to speak to an agent straight away over the telephone.
2: Right Move
As the UK’s most popular portal, look past the domestic listings to discovers homes for sale in 90 countries including the USA, European destinations, and far-flung places like Costa Rica. They say “Rightmove Overseas is one of the most visited property websites in the UK for people buying abroad, investing in overseas property, or looking to buy a holiday home. Rightmove’s massive audience offers advertisers selling property overseas huge market exposure.”
Each listing on Right Move includes photos, home details, local knowledge, and map location, and a country buying guide. They also display the agent’s phone number and function to email them and find out more or arrange a viewing. If you like a home or find an ideal investment opportunity, the website enables you to make notes and save it for future reference.
3: Zoopla and Prime Location Portals
As another one of the UK’s success stories, Zoopla, along with the first two, dominate the property market for British buyers looking for a second home abroad. Displaying listings of villas and apartments in many countries, they have a strong portfolio of homes for sale in Turkey, Spain, Cyprus, Italy, France, Portugal, and the United States. One aspect we like is their real estate agents directory that also includes telephone numbers to talk with an agent in any country.
Even though Zoopla and Prime Location are two different websites, we have listed them together because the latter is owned by the first. Hence their real estate portfolio and agents directory display the same listings. We prefer the design and layout of Zoopla but like the Advice section of Prime Location. It includes international real estate guides, topics about the environment, advice for proprietors and investors, moving and montage guides.
Estate agents should watch the above three best international property portals because they will lead the way with the future of real estate and virtual viewings. The coronavirus has sparked the popularity of them, and sometimes, international home buyers have purchased new builds, on a virtual viewing alone without ever having visited the country. This virtual viewing technology article explains more and why it will change the way we buy and sell houses.
International Property for Sale
As an overseas estate agent, we also have homes for sale in Barbados, Turkey, Spain, France, Portugal, Switzerland, Greece, Cyprus, and the United Kingdom. Each listing is straight forward and includes everything to know about that apartment or villa, and should you want to find out more or speak to an agent about buying abroad, call us. See the portfolio of overseas homes here.
