79% of homebuyers now search online

A sample of 200 local homebuyers and 100 estate agents were interviewed regarding what media and method locals used to find a new home. 79% use the internet with an online breakdown revealing interesting results, this means almost eight out of 10 local homebuyers are currently looking online.

Specifically 62% of homebuyers use www.property24.com, 11% use www.privateproperty.com and 10% use wwwfin24.com. The remaining 4% use estate agent websites while a paltry 1% use search engines such as Google and Yahoo.

The survey revealed that more traditional media like newspapers are still used by 58% of local homebuyers but the internet is now the first port of call for most South Africans when looking for property to buy. 42% of homebuyers use the Saturday Star newspaper while 9% use the Business Times.

Magazines come third with 53 % - this breaks down to 26% for SA Homeowner magazine, 19% for Garden and Home and 16% for the Financial Mail.

In fourth and fifth media place is television at 41% and radio at 34% respectively. Television comprises 28% for Top Billing on SABC 3 and 18% for the Home Channel on DSTV. BBC Lifestyle is at the back of the queue at 1%.

Radio showed 26% for 702, four percent for 94.7 Highveld Stereo and 2% for Jacaranda. SAFM, RSG and 5FM all have 1% each.

Social media's role

Interestingly social media is also playing more of a role in home buyers' search but it remains in last place at 25% overall. The breakdown for social media is Facebook at 19%, Twitter at 6% and 1% each for Houzz updates, www.yookoos.com and Blackberry Messenger.

According to Dan Brown, deputy CEO at Century Property Developments, "Our commissioned research also showed that in addition to conducting searches online, local homebuyers are also becoming more tech savvy generally and often use their smartphones or iPads to go online for comparative pricing and also to check the proximity of viewed homes to their place of work or children's school."

Research by World Wide Worx has confirmed that tech savvy South Africans are increasingly adopting the internet to make well-informed purchasing decisions and this new research indicates that local home buyers are no different in this regard. For example online shopping in SA is growing in SA at a rate of 30% a year.