This is all by the by. Property portals have no real future on the ever-changing internet and soon no estate agents will pay for listing properties on them.
There is a pilot scheme going on in London at the moment where a search engine locates properties that are for sale on estate agency websites and features them for free. This will soon expand to cover the UK and when Google and Yahoo hear of the idea they will put that company out of business by using their spiders and massive Internet brand to offer a search engine just for properties for sale and let. I honestly think that this idea will change the landscape of the estate agency industry as it will be almost impossible to separate them apart from the obvious price and customer service.
All the major portals will only be featuring properties that have paid to be listed, where as this will list every property in any given area. Where would you go if you were looking to buy a property, on Google Property Searches or go searching each and every property portal? Its a no brainer, portals are a dieing breed and anyone that is willing to spend millions on a massive marketing campaign will initially make a mint but any investors looking at this as a long term viable plan are, in my opinion, going to lose out massively in the future.
