Over the last twelve months, a storm of economic challenges has weakened the property market and created significant issues for property developers. Inflation and interest rates have remained stubbornly high, although we appear to have reached the peak of that curve and are starting to see signs of forward movement once more. We caught up with our National New Homes Manager, Ella Pearson, to explore how property developers have had to adapt their marketing strategy to achieve long-term success.
Buying a new home is a huge financial and emotional investment. It’s a major life decision and most buyers want a property that will be their home for years to come, integral to the lifestyle they hope to lead. So, whilst the process of buying a home is hugely exciting, it can also be very stressful. In the current market, we have had to think creatively and consider different ways to entice buyers them to buyers to invest.
We understand that for developers to prosper in difficult market conditions, they need to adopt innovative marketing and financial solutions. There is a real need to find alternative methods to deliver housing projects and we have developed a wide range of tools and technologies to ensure home selling success.
Know the target market
No two developments are the same, just as no two buyers are the same, so it is important to know who your target audience is. Who will your development appeal most to? What age are they? Where do they work? Do they have children? More recently we have been using a range of incentives to target specific demographics to ensure that our marketing plans speak to the right people. Advertising a development as “family-friendly with good schools nearby” is not going to help you sell luxury flats in the city centre, but targeting your marketing at young professionals will - we have found local promotion helpful in raising awareness of developments and incentives and have been placing flyers in schools and local sports clubs.
Create a strong brand for the development
Whatever the size of the development, be it a small cluster of four homes or a sprawling 500-home site, creating a strong brand is essential for success. Positioning directional boards near the development helps people find the developments tucked away and every visitor counts. We know that people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it and having consistent branding across marketing literature, such as property brochures, as well as digital media, website and interactive property walk-throughs is important.
Embrace Technology
We are having to make more use of advanced technologies such as virtual staging and virtual tours which are proving to be inexpensive ways of helping potential buyers visualise how they can use key areas within the property. These are being used to promote both individual new build houses and house types, instead of having expensive high-spec show homes. These are especially useful resources which are invaluable for giving potential buyers a feel for the property and imagining themselves living there.
We are also using QR Codes in a lot of our sales suites, to access brochures and prices lists. Although they have been around for some time and were heavily utilised during the pandemic, people have got used to scanning them to obtain information. We are also exploring the use of them on our main development sales boards too, so those passing can easily access the relevant development details.
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