Search, search, search

The housing market is still a seller’s market. Due to the tightness, buyers are in a weaker position. The seller rules! He or she largely determines the sales price, although of course always within certain limits. But you could also say: the housing market is currently primarily a seeker’s market. We all search like crazy. Last year, Funda registered a whopping 850 million visits, an increase of 32% over 2019. Per hour, that’s an average of 2.3 million visits.

You probably also know a few Funda addicts, people who look daily without actually wanting to buy. The number of so-called “fun- or inspiration seekers” is large, according to Funda about 80%. The most viewed property of 2020 is a country house in Aerdenhout with an asking price of over 15 million euros. We dream a lot during our Funda visits …

Some 20% of Funda visitors are considered ‘serious searchers’. The number of contact requests from the search engine to brokers increased about 30% to 10.7 million in 2020. Funda’s data further shows that last year more searches were made for the keyword ‘outdoor space’. After price and the number of days the house is for sale, this was now the most important applied filter in searches.

The ranking of the most visited municipality on Funda has been pretty constant for several years. Here, Eindhoven is not the fifth city in the country, but the sixth. The municipality of Groningen (which follows Eindhoven in size) is slightly more popular as a search area. Looking at the growth in popularity, the pricey Blaricum is in first place: an increase of 35%. So there will be many dreamers among the searchers there. Helmond is here in 6th place, an increase of over 29%. Here, the share of serious seekers is probably much higher, because Helmond’s house prices are relatively low.

Visitors to Funda can also enter their own keywords. Here we often see these words: ground floor, detached, swimming pool, double occupancy, (residential) farm and private land. But also facilities for horse(s) are often searched. Given the poor development of the supply, this year will continue to be mainly ‘search, search, search’ on the housing market.