It’s no secret that Australians are obsessed with property, and with the RBA hitting pause on rate hikes on Tuesday, it’s good news for borrowers.
News Corp’s Growth Distillery has just released their property report, The Path to Property, highlighting the role that digital news media plays in a person’s property journey, from the first dollar saved through to moving day.
Mediaweek spoke to Leigh Lavery, News Corp’s Head of Growth Intelligence, to dig deeper into the research.
“News Corp is aware of how important digital is in the property sector from a media consumption perspective,” Lavery says. “We really want to understand how we can tailor our proposition to meet the needs of Australians buying or selling property.”
The property market is a rapidly evolving space, and one that currently seems to be reaching a tipping point. For Lavery, whilst the research is a snapshot of the current market, there is also information that can be used well into the future.
“In the research itself, there are a lot of themes that are evergreen. However, it’s interesting to think about how we cover the property sector for today.
“What I mean by that is that we’ve got some lessons around how different styles of property intenders navigate their purchase journey. We were able to identify key themes that I think stand the test of time, but there are probably meaningful differences in how they play out today.”
The research – created in partnership with research consultancy MyMavins – identified five common types of people on their property journey: First home buyers, upsizers, downsizers, sea or tree chargers, and investors. The research also identified two key stages of the purchase journey, passive and active.
“When you’re at the passive stage, confidence is a key word,” says Lavery. “What you need confidence in will vary by the type of audience, or type of person that you are. The biggest trigger to shift someone from passive to active is confidence in their financial capacity.
“We know when people get to the active decision stage, their most important point is the right price. The right price has very different connotations in today’s terms compared to 18 months ago – what’s right will change depending on the market.”
For Lavery, one of the standout statistics of the research is that 72% of industry participants consume news media for property information whilst in the passive stage.
“Out of the Australians who are interested in property – who have either bought or sold in the last two years, or intend to buy or sell in the next two years – seven in 10 use news media as a way to make a better decision. That is a really powerful story.
“Four of those seven use one of News Corp’s properties for that information.”
As people move along the timeline from passive audience to active buyer, the content they consume changes along with them. Being able to track this movement highlights to Lavery just how important News Corp brands are for potential buyers.
“One of the questions we asked was, ‘what sources of information do you use when you get to the active stage?’ – no surprises, REA and Domain. Property listing sites were used by 56%, and then 25% were using news media.
“We dropped from 70% across the journey, down to 25% at that active decision point – for me, that’s actually really important because it paints a really clear picture of where we have the most value. It’s our ability to help people have the confidence and the desire to shift to that active decision stage, and it’s really important for us to tailor what we do for audiences in that area.”
For brands and advertisers working with News Corp, Lavery says that the research provides an opportunity that is already garnering attention.
“We’ve already had a lot of interest from lenders, particularly around that key point of identifying when there’s a real need for that financial confidence – there’s a natural opportunity there. But for us, it’s really about going back to understanding those moments that matter, then it’s about making sure that we have the right partner alongside the content that we’re delivering.
“We want to play matchmaker. We want to introduce our partners to our audiences at those key moments, when they’re actually actively seeking the information that our partner can potentially provide.”
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Top Image: Leigh Lavery