As you can imagine, here at Online Marketplaces we need to keep track of a lot of real estate websites. Although they generate the most headlines, we don’t just cover the biggest names in the biggest markets. We cover all real estate websites in every market.
What we’ve discovered is that there aren’t good enough guides for the best of the best outside of the bigger markets. To make sure we never miss a beat, we’ve done the research and have compiled a series, by continent, of the best real estate websites in the world and why they hit the mark.
Based on data from Similarweb.com for July 2022.
A subsidiary of Alma Media and a sister company to Vuokraovi.com, Etuovi comes out on top when it comes to website traffic in Finland’s market. A traditional pay-to-list portal model for buying, renting, and selling property, Etuovi offers a range of filters that makes the process easier for Finnish consumers and those looking to crack into the market.
With the Etuovi website and app, users can search via the map or through keywords and whether or not a listing offers virtual tours- something that has jumped up in importance since spring of 2020.
Hemnet is the reference point for portals in Sweden. It is a traditional pay-to-list portal for buying, renting, and selling property that allows users to search its inventory via map, keyword, and whether or not a listing offers virtual tours.
Hemnet was named the "biggest winner" in Online Marketplaces' H1 2022 analysis.
Although more of a horizontal marketplace site, Finn leads the way in real estate as well as several other categories in Norway. It’s still a traditional pay-to-list portal. Like many horizontals, it offers robust filters for an easier search experience. Currently, consumers can benefit from searching for listings via the map where they can either input the region they’re interested in or draw a shape on the map, whether or not the listing offers virtual and 360 tours, and by keyword.
The property portal branch of a popular Icelandic news site is #1 in Iceland, though it doesn’t have much competition. The other options are a rental-only platform and a horizontal. Visir focuses solely on buying, renting, and selling property.
The confusingly-named Danish portals may be hard to tell from one another, but its market leader has over two times the traffic of its nearest rival Boliga.dk, but with fewer search filters. Boligsiden is agent-run and backed by Agents Groups.
It may not have a catchy name, but the German market leader is a titan of the internet and clocked over 40 million visits in June according to Similarweb. Now called ImmoScout24, owned by Scout24–which also owns WG Suche, another German portal–offers map searches, including drawing on the map to find listings within the exact boundaries a consumer wants, virtual tours, and keyword searches.
Consumers also benefit from being able to scroll through all of the images uploaded for a listing on the search page without the need to click on the listing itself.
For such a small country, the real estate market is robust, and the competition is heated with Homegate only just squeaking by its biggest rival, ImmoScout24.ch.
Scout24 websites seem to give many local real estate websites a run for their money and even in the Swiss market, the monthly visitor numbers for Homegate and ImmoScout24.ch are only a couple thousand apart.
Still, for the month of June, according to Similarweb, Homegate has come out on top. The real estate website offers users map search and the ability to draw on the map through its easy-to-use mobile app.
The Netherlands has quite the number of portals considering how small of a country it is. Still, there’s one that shines above the rest within its market. Market leader, Funda.nl, claims 93% spontaneous brand awareness and over 34 million monthly visits, as of June 2021.
Focusing on the kind of filters that are more forward-thinking, it offers map search, draw on map capabilities, and virtual tours.
Another market that’s small but robust with real estate website options, Belgium has five main property portals, but only one comes out on top. The undisputed market leader in Belgium is part of Axel Springer and was founded way back in 1996. Immoweb offers map search with the drawing feature and virtual tour filters on its search engine.
SeLoger Group also owns and runs #2 French portal site Logic-Immo. Between them, they boast over 20,000 advertising agencies and are both backed by Axel Springer.
SeLoger, however, offers more search filters than Logic-Immo, including map search with a drawing feature, keyword search, virtual tour filter, and scrollable images in the search results page.
Founded in 2000 by leading estate agent groups, Rightmove has gone on to be a point of reference for portals all over the world. As part of the top three real estate websites in the UK, Rightmove is a traditional pay-to-list, like rival OnTheMarket.
On Rightmove’s real estate website, home hunters can search via map, draw on said map, filter whether or not a listing offers virtual tours, search by keywords, and scroll through images on a listing before clicking on the listing, itself.
Zoopla has long been Rightmove's main competitor, but the rise of agent-owned OnTheMarket means there are three major players in the UK portal space.
Traditional pay-to-list portal for the Irish real estate market, Daft.ie, as of June, 2021, saw 5.88 million visitors on its website. Backed by Adevinta and Distilled Media (Fallon Brothers), which own 50% of the Irish market-leading property portal, respectfully, Daft.ie currently allows users to search via a map, though drawing on the map is a feature Daft.ie has yet to implement.
Still, the real estate website allows home hunters to search by keyword, add a pet-friendly filter, if a listing offers virtual tours, and scrollable images on the search results page.
With offices in 5 cities across 3 countries, Idealista is a rare example of a portal company enjoying success outside of its native market. This lands it in two spots on this list of the best real estate websites in Western Europe.
Idealista allows users to draw on the map, add a pet-friendly filter, and scroll through images on the listing results page.
Honorable mention here for OLX’s brand, Imovirtual.com, but Idealista has established itself as the leading portal across the border in Portugal as well as in its native Spain. Idealista,pt receives backing from its joint owners, Idealista, EQT, and Oakley Capital.
Over 20,000 advertising agents and 55 million monthly visits make Immobiliare the portal to beat in Italy. It also owns the enalquiler.com rentals portal in Spain.
A traditional pay-to-list real estate website, Immobilaire offers users a way to draw an area on the map, scroll through images on the search results page, and filter whether a listing has virtual tours or not.
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