A personal look on the last week of property news – Chris Haines – MD, Evolvin LtdLast week I was lucky enough to go to Dubai to promote some technological developments in the health care sector and whilst away it seems the whole world went a bit crazy in terms of news and developments that relate to the property sector.
Firstly Google announces that it’s binning the foray into the property sector with the cancelation of its property search feature. The internet giant says this is due to the challenge of keeping databases updated with properties and also the “proliferation of excellent property-search tools on real estate websites”. I’m not sure that Google is feeling the pinch exactly but it’s a good sign for all portals and smaller estate agent websites of “proof that more was required than simply a listing website to sell homes” – as was quoted in the
Financial Times this week.
Having been a regular visitor to Dubai over the past 8 years I’ve also seen the shift from the massive pace of development with 70% of the worlds cranes in the region, to a virtual stop two years ago. But over the past 6 months building projects are coming back to life in the Gulf as a whole, the Dubai Metro opened, and there are plenty of projects in the pipeline.
Finally, this week also saw the British police launch a website to show what crimes have been recorded on what streets. The website crashed on the same day such was the interest but my thoughts went to the effect this might have on the already struggling property prices. Will this have a negative effect on property prices or positive?
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If you would like to meet in person Evolvin is also organising a series of roadshows around the UK. The first one will be held in Bristol on the 24th of Feb. Entry is free but by pre-registration only. For more information please go to the
Forward Thinking Estate Agent roadshow page.