RE/MAX WEBSITE TOPS IN AN INDEPENDENT SURVEY

RE/MAX of Southern Africa has been named ‘King of the Web' in an independent user survey conducted to determine the top performing real estate websites in South Africa. 

Howzitt, a local digital property solutions company, conducted the independent study among candidates of varying backgrounds and different ages to get a measure of which estate agency rules the web.  South Africa's top 10 real estate companies websites: Pam Golding, Wakefields, Sothebys, Seeff, Jawitz, Chas Everitt, Harcourts, Engel & Volkers, Tysons and RE/MAX, were scored on key criteria such as navigation, brand perception, quality of information, quality of imagery, location mapping, user interface, speed, effective short listing, advice and feel. 

RE/MAX was rated the highest in six of the 10 categories - navigation, brand perception, location mapping, user interface, speed and feel - earning them the title of ‘King of the Web' and first place overall in the white paper issued by Howzitt. 

The survey comes shortly after the recent re-launch of www.remax.co.za, which was developed by local web application development company White Wall Web. The newly launched site features improved usability and interface design, cleaner code, and social media integration in order for RE/MAX to better communicate with their users. RE/MAX was also the first real estate agency in South Africa to implement Google Street View, an enhanced mapping tool linked to Google Maps and Google Earth which provides users with panoramic photographic detail at street level. 

Executive Director of White Wall Web, Noel Ross-Gillespie, notes, "RE/MAX have been deliberate in positioning themselves as the leaders in the online property space. Having adapted their site to meet the expectations of today's web users and enhanced their utilisation of available technology, this ambition has been achieved. We're very pleased to see it validated by this end-user survey." 

Adrian Goslett, CEO of RE/MAX of Southern Africa, says that the new website has had a positive impact on the company's sales figures, which have shown a dramatic increase over the last two months. "Our sales figures for May 2010 have shown a marked improvement of 37% up on the same period in 2009, while our June 2010 figures are 9% up on May. Goslett says that these figures are especially significant considering that winter is not traditionally a strong sales period in South Africa. 

Aside from an increase in sales figures, the www.remax.co.za site traffic patterns have seen marked increases too. Says Goslett: "It is incredible to see, when comparing the statistics for May and June, which was when the website was re-launched, to those statistics prior to this, that page views were up by almost 16% and that the pages viewed per visitor had increased by over 35%. This proves that our move to incorporate new technology into our site along with a more user-friendly interface has proved invaluable to both web browsers and our agents alike." 

Goslett concludes by saying that aside from a general uptick in the economy and property market, the impressive increase in sales is mainly attributed to the new website which has ensured more hits and leads for RE/MAX agents. "It follows that an increase in traffic to the website means more leads and more sales. The future of real estate lies in technology," he says, "and as the technology leaders in the real estate business, we are confident that the figures prove, and will continue to prove, that our agents have embraced the technology available to them and have made it work for their businesses."

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