How social media is influencing the housing market

REA Group is a leading brand in the Australian housing market but that doesn't mean it's immune to anything that might knock it off its perch.

Social media giant Facebook represents one such challenger. Despite taking somewhat of a back seat to Instagram and Snapchat as the platform of choice for millennials in recent times, it is still an absolute force among Gen X and the Baby boomers – and they have been busy making a play for stakes in the real estate market.

While obviously not a real estate portal, Facebook is a visually dynamic source of access to the latest and greatest in everything, and since turning their hand to real estate, they have steadily been making inroads as a viable alternative to REA. In May 2019, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg hinted that Facebook could be considering a play within the real estate space and with further evidence indicating this below means we have exciting times ahead.

A huge audience & passive buyers

CoreLogic estimates that the average Australian sells their property every 11 years. This means that they are only Active buyers for around one year, and for the remaining 10 years are Inactive or Passive Buyers, therefore they will not be found on Realestate.com.au.

The advantage Facebook has here is that their audience are paying attention around the clock 24/7, 365, whereas those within the property portals are only there when they are looking to transact real estate. Essentially, Facebook can not only deliver agents active buyers, but also these passive/inactive buyers – something the real estate portals just aren’t achieving at this stage.

Plus, with a global audience of 2.41 billion active users per month and 1.59 billion unique logins daily as of June 2019, Facebook has an unparalleled number of eyes on it. This critical mass of users presents huge potential as consumers of real estate marketing and property advertising, helping to generate leads for agents and property owners.

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