Google enters the UK property market
Search engine giant Google has today confirmed that residential property listings will be added to its Google maps service. The company claims that "hundreds of thousands" of homes are already being advertised for sale or rent on the Google maps service which is proving to be one of the more popular initiatives of late.
In a rather clever way, which does not alienate any area of the market, Google is allowing both estate agents and private sellers to gain access to Google maps at a price. All of the major property players appear to be in favour of the move and property experts Spicer Haart and Countrywide have been brought into the fold as expert advisers.
For many years there has been speculation that Google was looking to enter the UK property market although in such a way as to not alienate those already advertising with Google. By effectively partnering with some of the UK's most prominent property sellers and rental agents, as well as offering the same service to the public, this will bring on board a number of very powerful and very prominent property experts. It will be interesting to see how this strategy develops in the future and what kind of income it attracts for the company.
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