Internet update

Citation

Walker, T. (2001), "Internet update", Property Management, Vol. 19 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/pm.2001.11319eag.001

Internet update

The Internet is a valuable and powerful tool in analysing property markets, not only from the wealth of general information that exists, but also from that which exists in property specific Web sites.

Not everything is free either. After all, a business will not succeed without revenue – one only has to consider the collapse of various Internet ventures in the past to see this. Therefore the most valuable services charge a subscription.

A couple of years ago (in Volume 17 No. 2) I provided a review of Estates Gazette Interactive (EGi) (www.egi.co.uk) which provides the most comprehensive amount of property information, including all the latest news, deals and detailed information on the London office market, planning applications and legal cases. The cost varies depending on the services you subscribe to.

More recently the Estates Gazette's rival publication, Property Week launched a Web site providing the latest news. Unlike EGi the Property Week site (www.property-week.co.uk) is provided free of charge and not aimed at rivalling EGi. It is simply a news service providing the latest property news, with headlines on the latest news in the UK. The site is linked in with all the other publications by the Builder Group, providing a comprehensive news service on other property-related issues. A search facility is also provided under the "magazine archive" heading, enabling past articles dating back to January 1999 to be found. The search can be based on free text and restricted to certain publications including Property Week, Construction Manager and Building.

Other cost-based Internet services include Focus from Property Intelligence. This is, for many, a deals database covering the whole of the UK and all property types. It is however more than that, and having collected information over time from the property press, press releases and other sources the service provides an extremely useful history on, for example, individual buildings. In developing the service, Property Intelligence are using a gazetteer to code all properties with a unique number that will remove the potential for duplicate records and changing building/site names. This will also make searching within the system easier with users able to immediately link to other parts of the system such as from deals to planning. Beyond building histories, the site also provides town profiles including demographic data (populations and households), housing tenure, rents, house prices and communications. For further information on these products visit www.focusnet.co.uk.

Property Market Intelligence provides individual PROMIS town reports via a Web-based browser, which is now being used to replace the paper copies enabling subscribers to access the latest information. The reports are split between office, industrial and retail; with reports covering various towns and cities across the UK for each of these sectors. For each report the option to view individual sections exists, such as stock, availability and deals, or should you wish, the ability to download the whole report to view in Adobe Acrobat. The costs vary depending on the reports subscribed to. More information is available from www.property-m-a.co.uk.

The Property Mall (www.propertymall.com) hosts and designs Web sites for a number of property related organisations. However, beyond this service the site also provides regular news on the basis of the press releases it receives. This is posted on the Web site, with a free weekly e-mail newsletter available to subscribers that provides direct links to news stories, broken down into various categories such as office lettings or office sales. While basic, this is a useful resource in gaining accurate and fairly up-to-date information on market transactions.

Business Parks.Net (www.businessparks.net) and City Offices.Net (www.cityoffices.net) are products provided by a joint venture between Estates Today (see www.estatestoday.co.uk) and Metropolis Property Research. Both are subscription based services, the business parks product providing access to databases that "provide high quality 'real time' information and research on business parks in the UK and continental Europe"; the City Office product "provides comprehensive details on major office projects recently completed, under construction and planned in central London and London Docklands". Details on subscriptions are available on the Web site, although for those who do not wish to subscribe some free information is available subject to restrictions, although you will also have to register some basic details too. Essentially the free information is limited to relevant news stories such as development activity and deals. The City offices section has also been developed now with a new focus on Birmingham.

For those in the investment market UK Property Investment Pages (www.ukpip.com) might be worth a look. The site contains limited news on the investment market, together with a database of investments currently on the market, searchable by property type, yield and lot size. There is also a forum for discussion, although headings on Cricket, summer holidays and whether to buy a TT or Boxster suggest that it is not being used too seriously!

Other sites that may be of interest are Property Bull (www.propertybull.com), which is essentially another property news service. Those with an interest in planning may wish to visit www.planning.haynet.com , providing up-to-date news stories on planning issues, with a searchable archive on Planning Magazine available.

If you are aware of any other Web sites, which may be of interest to the readership, either in the UK or overseas, simply drop me an e-mail and I will endeavour to publish details in future issues.

Nigel AlmondAssociate DirectorWeatherall Green & Smith, London nigel.almond@weatheralls.co.uk