"The ability to sell quickly is at the top of the list, as well as seeing a sharp increase since the start of the year."
There has been a sharp increase in home sellers searching for ‘fast sales’, as well as ‘local’ and ‘high-street estate agents’ in what are becoming increasingly difficult market conditions, new data from GetAgent shows.
The estate agent comparison site analysed Google search trends for eight key terms including fast sale, local and high-street estate agents, to see which was top of the list for sellers and which has seen the largest increase since the start of the year.
With house prices cooling in recent months, it’s no surprise that the most prominent search term in relation to estate agency at present is ‘quick sale’, with a current Google search score of 11.8.
‘Best estate agent’ also ranked high (10), as did ‘low cost estate agent’ and ‘low fee’.
However, when it comes to the change in prominence for these search terms, the biggest increase since the start of the year has been by those searching for a ‘fast sale’, increasing by 489% from 1.5 in January to a score of 8.9 today.
‘Local estate agent’ has also seen an increase of 71%, with ‘high street agent’ increasing by 54% in prominence.
Other search terms to have seen a notable increase include ‘low fee’ (+44%), ‘low cost’ (+29%) and ‘quick sale’ (+28%).
‘Cheapest estate agent’ and ‘how to find the best estate agent’ have both fallen in prominence since the start of the year, down by -24% and -26% respectively.
COO of GetAgent, Mal McCallion, commented: “It’s clear that current market conditions are having an impact on the priorities of home sellers. With house prices showing signs of decline in recent months and mortgage rates going the other way, the ability to sell quickly is at the top of the list, as well as seeing a sharp increase since the start of the year.
"However, while sellers may be looking to cut back on costs, they certainly seem to be striking a balance, continuing to place local expertise within their market ahead of the lower cost online agents who operate a call centre based model.”
