This site is amazing!

Came across London Profiler via Nestoria this afternoon and I have to say that I think this site is absolutely amazing, and quite useful too.
In essence London Profiler works by permitting users to visualise a neighbourhood profile using different classifications through a Google Map interface. The classifications are mainly demographic and include a Multicultural Atlas of the city, E-Literacy, Education, Census Classification, plus a Deprivation and Health Index.
Most relevant to Renthusiast readers is the integration of Nestoria London search results for properties to buy or sell. The way the Nestoria results are displayed on London Profiler probably represents the way property search engines (and portals) will display search results in the not too distant future (at least I hope so!). Congratulations to the UCL Department of Geography for developing London Profiler.

Death of a Blog(nation)

Almost a year to the day Sam Sethi left Techrunch his startup Blognation is officially dead. Although Sam blames Mike Arrington for his failure Mike does offer a fairly balanced explanation as to what really happened:

Marc Orchant had a massive heart attack. And the reason he had a heart attack may have been because he was working for Sam, not being paid, and massively stressed out about supporting his family. That is a debatable point, but another Blognation editor, Oliver Starr (who also used to work with me), decided to destroy Sam and Blognation by attacking him publicly.

It's kinda sad to see Blognation go, but to go this way is even sadder. A lot of people believed in Sam Sethi. I met him a few times and thought he was a pretty stand-up guy. Outside of the rumors and innuendos I personally feel that the real reason Blognation failed is that they expanded the business way too quickly.

Interview with Mike Carter of Zoomf.com

Last week Zoomf announced their long awaited nationwide rollout. Business Development Manager Mike Carter took time out to answer a few questions I had for him ...

What differentiates Zoomf from other online property search tools and applications?

Good question. Well there is a lot you could point to so it depends on from what point of view you are asking so I'll break it down;

1. front end
2. back end

1. On the front end we have visual search, the ability to draw shapes on maps and say that is my search area. We also have a draggable map that auto-populates. Our listings are postage stamps horizontally which we've not seen in other sites and we also have landing pages for properties which some of the other search engines do not have. It's still early days for all the new players, so I'm sure the front-ends will adapt as they see fit.

2. The Zoomf backend is a custom application built from open source including the Lucene product from apache. I suppose that is the biggest thing that differentiates us from the portals and other search engines. We are not a meta search engine (getting a feed from a portal then doing search).

What has been the greatest challenge so far

Raising money in the UK as opposed to the US and growing a cohesive team to fire on all cylinders.

What are the strategies for monetizing the service and how are those strategies being implemented?

There are a lot of monetization plans in place but our first live product is here: www.zoomf.com/geoads
Outside GEO ADs, you're going to see a lot from Zoomf in '08 as far as innovative marketing programs for agents and general advertisers.

What plans (if any) does Zoomf have for further expansion

We have international ambitions but for the first half of 2008 we want to get the UK right. By the way our national index is live
:-)

What impact is the credit crunch and housing market slowdown having on your business?

None as of yet. A housing slow down just means that capturing audience more efficiently becomes even more important. The internet is still the first port of call for property research. With the decline of print advertising and the cost differentials between online and print, there is still huge growth going on in the sector.

Thanks Mike for answering my questions, it looks like 2008 will shape up to be an intensely competitive environment for the vertical search industry and hopefully Zoomf's audience capturing strategy will prove successful for them.

Zoomf goes national

just in time for Christmas

Problems with Spanish property search

A few weeks ago, we mentioned the launch of Barcelona based Nuroa.com, the newest vertical search engine to enter the Spanish market. Other players in the Spanish property search game include Trovit, and Nestoria. One of the things we highlighted with Nuroa was the lack of a mapping system which has become standard on all vertical search engines that I know of in the UK, the US and elsewhere.
Victor Aloi, product manager at Nuroa, responded to our post via email, stating that the main problem in Spain is distrust among owners and agents:

80% of the agencies don't want to give exact addresses, because they usually don't have exclusives and don't want other agencies to get ring up the owners and try to get them to also list with their services. From the owner's perspective, the more, the better (within limits). She only has to pay the agency that brings a buyer. But from the agency's perspective, more competition is a bad thing. So they don't put addresses when they list with the portals or when they include properties on their own sites. That means that the mapping function becomes largely useless. We are speaking with agencies about ways to offer maps without losing their competitive advantage.

Victor highlighted that Nestoria also had a similar problem and suggested I read Nestoria's Spanish FAQ (English translation):

The Spanish market is peculiar in the sense that many owners who sell a property not sign exclusive contracts with a single agent. [The agents] in some cases prefer not [to] openly publish the exact location of the properties to minimize the risk that the buyer and seller close a contract between them without intervention by the real estate agent.

"Precise geolocation of the properties in Spain is a challenge," Nestoria's Ed Freyfogle told me via email, "agents don't provide accurate information. They instead say something like 'two bed flat in central Madrid'." Nestoria have come up what they think to be the best solution to the problem by providing maps on every search result page and by adding local information including train stations and local photos where possible. According to "J2" Nestoria's Spanish blog administrator:

... one of the strong points in mind when searching for a home proximity to a public transport station. While some Nestorians come from big cities, there are others to which the underground have not yet called to the front door, so we have to focus on our beloved renfe lines.
We have added a new list of train stations directly to the information related to each area. If you look for a home in Grenada and choose the option "Railway stations" below the map, you will see the mythical symbol of renfe at the point where the nearest station is located. [English translation]

So far Nestoria is approaching the problem from a technological standpoint focusing on pointing users towards the nearest train stations and other relevant information on their interface; Nuora appears to be taking a more diplomatic strategy by engaging agents to find a solution to the problem and Trovit appears to avoid the problem altogether by not even offering or suggesting any kind of mapping service whatsoever [see comments].
On a grander scale, it appears that the problems the Spanish vertical search engines are facing are probably part of a greater problem overall with the Spanish real estate industry. High profile political corruption and criminal activity is well documented . Urgent reforms and regulation is needed if the industry is to be taken seriously and expand on a global scale.

"EuroVegas" planned for Spanish desert

Europe is set to get its own version of Las Vegas in a desert region of eastern Spain where developers plan to build 32 hotel-casinos, two theme parks, a racecourse and stadium over the next decade.
The project, approved last week by the regional government of Aragon, also calls for the construction of residential areas, an equestrian centre and a golf course on just over 2,000 hectares (5,000 acres) of land in the Los Monegros desert.
Tentatively called "Gran Escala," which means large-scale, the development has a 17-billion-euro (25-billion-dollar) price tag that will be footed by International Leisure Development, a London-based consortium of investors.
The goal "is the construction of an integrated leisure city for people of all ages, the first European city with these characteristics," a Spanish investor in the joint venture, Jaime Riera, told AFP.
Developers expect the complex will receive 25 million visitors per year when it is completed, below its maximum capacity of 35 million annual visitors.
The location -- half-way between Madrid and Barcelona, Spain's second city -- was selected over two other possible sites in Europe because it has good transportation links, favourable tax laws and relatively low land prices.
Millions are being spent in the nearby city of Zaragoza to upgrade rail and air connections, and expand its small airport, in time for the 2008 World Fair which it will host.
Zaragoza is already connected to Madrid by a high-speed train that takes only 80 minutes to make the roughly 300-kilometre (185-mile) trip and by the time of the fair it will be linked by high-speed rail to Barcelona as well.
The high-speed rail links will make it easier for the millions of tourists who flock to Spain each year, making it the second most visited country in the world after France, to head to the casino city.

"The renewal of infrastructure, the fame which is coming to Aragon and the quick action of local officials all attracted this project here," said Didier Rancher, a French entrepreneur whose company will install the two theme parks. It is an interesting project, we are dedicated to giving it all the necessary support and we have high hopes, we are forecasting the creation of 30,000 jobs," said a spokesman for the government of Aragon.

The themes of the hotel-casinos will cover the sweep of history, from Pharaonic Egypt to Ancient Greece to the Roman Era and the Italian Renaissance.
The project, which will be formally presented in Zaragoza on December 12, also includes plans for a water park and a spy-themed park called Spyland based on the worldwide history of spies and secret services.
Construction of the water park and Spyland is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2008 with the whole project built in stages.
Despite the promise of more jobs for the region, not everyone is happy with the project.

"Once again we are seeing how the local government meets the needs of private developers instead of the needs of local people," said Adolfo Barrena, a member of the opposition party Izquierda Unida or United Left.

Tourism is a major earner in Spain, with the sector accounting for some 12 percent of gross domestic product.


Copyright AFP 2007

Trump trumped over Scottish golf resort

Donald Trump's plans to develop a £1bn golf resort in north-east Scotland were in disarray last night after councillors uncerimoniously dumped the scheme. Property Week quoted the council chairman stating that Trump was "holding a pistol to their heads" and that the councillors were being asked to "sell their souls."
Trump stated he had "options elsewhere" including Ireland and potentially Romania.
update Dec 13th Scottish government gives Trump a hand

Knight Frank profits up nearly 70%

According to this mornings Times, Knight Frank LLC (division of New York based Newmark Knight Frank) is reporting 67% profits over the last financial year and paying an average £1m bonus to each of its 38 partners, with the highest earning an impressive £1.8m on top of his salary.

The partnership has a large commercial division, which advised clients on a string of high-profile transactions last year, including the acquisition of 30 St Mary Axe, the office building nicknamed the “Gherkin” in the City of London, for £600m.
Its residential division, which is best known for selling country houses and luxury homes, has also had some big wins, including the sale of the Crown Estate’s former headquarters to tycoons Srichand and Gopichand Hin-duja. In November Kate Moss sold the three-bedroom Victorian mansion in north London that she shared with former lover Pete Doherty for £3.25m through Knight Frank.
...
Knight Frank said that, overall, in the financial year to April 30, 2007, turnover rose by 32% to £284.4m and underlying group operating profits increased by 67% to £59.6m.
In total its staff will now share in a £51.4m bonus pool, but the biggest earners will be its 38 proprietary partners, who saw their average earnings rise by 47% to £1.1m each.

The future of real estate sales

Makes sense to me, doesn't it?
[via Bloodhound]