Local Newspapers Fuel Property Market Activity

Local newspapers are a catalyst for activity in the property market with local press readers far more likely than average to be considering buying or selling property in the next year, according to independent data.

And the chief executive of NAEA Propertymark, the National Association of Estate Agents, has said today that local newspapers will remain a “key platform” for estate agents for many years to come because they are so effective.

According to TGI, local press is a particularly effective catalyst for young first time buyers with local press readers in their 20s or 30s – millennials – 160 per cent more likely than average to be expecting to purchase their first home in the next 12 months.

Older local press readers are also far more likely than average to be active in the property market.  Local press readers aged in their 30s, 40s or 50s – Generation X – are 74 per cent more likely than average to be expecting to sell or purchase a house or flat in the next 12 months.

According to Consumer Catalyst, local media – local newspapers and their websites -are the most popular source for keeping an eye on the property market with 56 per cent of people citing estate agent ads in local media as their source compared to 37 per cent, the next highest, who cited property websites such as Rightmove or Zoopla.  

And local media drives people take action. Twenty-nine per cent of people looked at a property in more detail online after seeing an ad or article in local media.

Mark Hayward, chief executive, NAEA Propertymark, said: “Local newspapers, both print and digital, are an essential platform for estate agents to communicate with the marketplace. They are highly trusted and therefore estate agents rightly see them as effective outlets through which to advertise both properties and the wider services they offer.

“This is important for estate agents who, like local papers, are a part of the communities they serve. The media landscape is changing but local newspapers will remain a key platform for estate agents and will continue to have a central role to play in property marketing for many years to come.”

Local press Gen X readers are 156 per cent more likely to have responded to a residential property classified ad while local press millennial readers are 171 per cent more likely to have responded to a residential property classified ad and are 121 per cent more likely to have placed one, according to TGI.