New research from leading proptech business, TwentyEA reveals that despite the fact that available stock is the lowest since 2008, estate agents only need to target 10% of the off-market properties in their area, to communicate with over 60% of the people who will sell their house in the very near future.
TwentyEA is celebrating a five-year milestone for its Forecast tool, which is based on clever data algorithms and traditional analysis techniques. The AI and machine learning used in the forecasting have improved significantly year on year, thanks to an investment of over half a million pounds by TwentyEA in leading-edge technology.
Over the five-year period, TwentyEA have significantly refined the AI model, taking it from predicting properties likely to instruct in the next twelve months, to its current position where it is highly accurate in predicting instructions in the next four months.
Data for March 2022 reveals that the top 10% of the model successfully predicted 62% of all of the new instructions that came onto the market last month.
TwentyEA Forecast can give every UK property a score as to how likely it is to instruct in the next four months, by looking at hundreds of different data points around the property itself, the people living in it and the local market.
Many of the criteria that are the only selection options in other ‘off market’ tools have already been built into TwentyEA’s Forecast, such as how long the owner has lived in the property; how old they are; whether the property has been withdrawn from the market in the past; or whether a sale has fallen through, but the property has not gone back up for sale.
This is then combined with hundreds of other data points that might increase their likelihood to move – are they a young couple with a baby living in a small flat, or someone who is recently divorced living alone in a large house with lots of equity?
At the start of this year there were 350,980 properties for sale in the UK, 36% fewer than at the start of 2020, and the lowest amount since TwentyEA began collecting and analysing data in 2008. At the same time, the number of homes available to rent is also at rock bottom, with prospective tenants reporting they have had to jostle their way on to shortlists just to view a property.
Despite many homeowners still wanting to move, a lot are currently holding off listing their property, driven by fear that as there is little on the market resulting in a struggle to find their next home.
Katy Billany, Executive Director of TwentyEA comments: “For many estate agents, targeted ‘off-market’ prospecting is a key way of not only finding potential vendors, but also helping clients to find their next home. A double win in terms of getting hold of more stock.
“The beauty of AI and Machine Learning is that by definition they learn over time and so given that our model now has five years’ experience behind it, and that we are now in our fifteenth year of tracking the property market, so it has a great deal of data to learn from, we have the most accurate and effective propensity to move data available to agents.
“Our Forecast model has evolved significantly over this time, making it an increasingly more valuable tool for our clients. Even a year ago, targeting the top 30% of properties to reach 80% of new instructions was impressive, but now we’ve improved that even further, so that agents only need to communicate with 10% of the properties in their patch to reach 62% of the vendors who will instruct. This is a remarkable five times better than random targeting. In fact, one of our largest clients generate over 60% of their valuations from our Forecast data.
“As the market continues to evolve, being equipped with the right proptech solution couldn’t be more important. Right now, a tool that can provide access to the properties most likely to come to the market, enabling agents to win those all-important new instructions through targeted, automated marketing campaigns is not a ‘nice to have’, it’s a must-have.”
TwentyEA are experts in the UK home mover market, providing smart, specific, and intelligent home mover data and insight to help agents better understand the challenges of the industry – and crucially how to apply this knowledge to leverage brand power. TwentyEA holds the UK’s biggest and richest resource of factual life event data including the largest, most comprehensive source of home mover data compiled from more than 29 billion qualified data points.
TwentyEA’s customer intelligence and engagement solutions leverage data and technology on the agent’s behalf, enabling them to connect with target consumers using unique data insights into the key life events that stimulate customer demand. TwentyEA is part of the TwentyCi group of companies who use data science to improve commercial outcomes for clients.
Visit the TwentyEA landing page on Kerfuffle for more information and to see their reviews.
