Buyers and Tenants Complaints about Property Websites
Property Websites are the main search method for Buyers and Tenants. However, their experiences are often disappointing and lead to confusion, frustration and a lot of wasted time.
The graph below shows the results of a survey of 100 users of property portals in Dubai.
The most frequent complaint is the high number of expired and fake advertisements which are often designed to “hook buyers and tenants” who are the introduced to other properties which often do not match their needs.
Multiple listings of the same property create an impression that they buyer or tenant has a lot of choice. It causes a misinterpretation of the supply of homes. Many buyers or tenants also complained that they make viewing arrangements with more than one broker in a building and then discover all the brokers are advertising the same apartment.
Buyers and Tenants most common complaints.
The standard of descriptions - often copied and pasted from other apartments / villas - is not of a high enough standard. Also, the photographs used are often not of the actual property or of the correct view. This, again, causes Buyers and Tenants a lot of wasted time.
It is appreciated that in many properties the current tenants do not allow photographs or videos to be taken, so generic photographs are used by the broker in advertisements. However, the broker should make a comment in the property description that the photographs are generic.
Real Estate / Property sales and rentals is a 7-days per week business. However, one of the most surprising complaints was that many brokers / property agents do not answer their phone calls on weekends - the days on which most buyers and tenants are available to view property.
Dubai Land Department have been carrying out discussions with the property portals in Dubai in order to improve the accuracy of those properties advertised. It is a gradual process but one which needs to be speeded-up so that buyers, tenants and property do not lose total confidence in what they see online.
