Leading property portals, OnTheMarket and Zoopla, have announced this month that they are both planning to begin advertising properties for rent on the social networking site, Facebook.
The online property portals will be placing advertisements for property rentals on Facebook Marketplace, which allows Facebook users to browse for items to buy. Facebook Marketplace became available in 2016, and it is hoped this innovative idea will encourage potential tenants to search for rental properties.
Launched at the end of last year, the scheme is already in place in the USA, and has experienced huge success across thousands of property rentals and sales.
Potential tenants will be able to search through up to 300,000 listings for rental properties from ZPG (Zoopla Property Group) websites, alongside all available rental listings from the tens of thousands of agents in Britain who are registered with OnTheMarket.
Users of the social media platform will be able to browse Facebook for properties to let, with useful search criteria and sort functions to easily find the right property. Contact information for the relevant agent for each property will also be clearly displayed.
Up to April 2018, it is estimated that over 800 million people worldwide utilised Facebook Marketplace to sell and buy different items. In Britain, approximately 30 million people log into Facebook each day, meaning rental listings will have a wide reach across a large audience.
ZPG Property Services Managing Director, Charlie Bryant, has emphasised how positive this news is for letting agents and members of the ZPG Group, who will be able to achieve far-reaching distribution of their rental listings, alongside increased brand exposure. As millions of people use the social media platform, potential tenants will find it extremely easy to search for homes to let on Facebook Marketplace.
ZPG has explained that letting agents should aim to get the maximum exposure to their rental listings and brand using Facebook, whilst gaining a wide range of services and advice to generate additional revenues and leads.
Brand Director at On The Market, John Milsom, has stated that Facebook Marketplace’s reach and scale, integrated with rental listings and property content from landlords and letting agents, is an ideal match.
Potential tenants will now be able to browse Facebook Marketplace in Britain, and contact letting agents and landlords, who will be easily able to update and add new listing data constantly to guarantee accurate pricing and availability. It is expected that by working with Facebook Marketplace, landlords and letting agents will be able to gain increased value for both their businesses, and for potential tenants.
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