Facebook's ad engine could spell trouble for UK property portals

Social media giant Facebook to launch a social ad engine for real estate

The feature will allow property listings on its platform, where those looking for homes to buy and rent can find them in an easy to navigate channel.

Announcement of the launch was made at the Cartus Conference in the US, attended by 10,000 delegates including a handful of UK agents.

They included Richard Fowler, of Richard James in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, who are the current holders of the Relocation Agent Network agent of the year.

The visit to Las Vegas was part of the prize.

Fowler said that the announcement by Facebook was very thin on detail, with no mention of pricing, or whether the launch was exclusive to America.

Fowler stated: “It was announced to us as being hot off the press, and because the audience was overwhelmingly American, there were no specifics as to which countries it will be rolled out in.

“However, Facebook normally treats itself as one platform.

“This could be a game changer for the property portals – and that was certainly the view among the delegates.

“It could also potentially be the next stage of a private sales site.

“The main property portals in the UK should certainly see this as a threat.”

Also announced in Las Vegas was a new product called Ojo, to be launched soon.

This was held out to be the next development in Artificial Intelligence – ie, the tech world will be able to know when a customer is ready to sell before they know themselves.

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