Buying a pair of shoes or groceries online requires a leap of faith, with many consumers only just getting used to the internet as a shopping portal. In fact, the large majority of internet purchases consist of less personable items, such as travel, tickets, music and DVDs.
Yet it is now claimed that Brits are buying houses online, without having even seen them first.
While traditionally a ‘gut feel’ goes a long way to influencing a house purchase, a new wave of investors are buying homes using no more than a photograph and vital statistics to steer their decision.
Coined ‘blind buying,’ by founders of property website Landlordtrader.co.uk, this new trend has proven that people across the UK are willing to put their faith in the web and each other.
Research shows that around 60 per cent of online shoppers spend around £33 or less per month on goods. Yet when it comes to buying property, investors are beginning to use the web as an investment portal investing far larger sums of money.
On LandlordTrader.co.uk investors are prepared to sign away an average spend of around £135,000 at the click of a mouse. The portal claims 93 per cent of its buyers have agreed an offer to purchase properties without conducting a single viewing over the past six months.
LandlordTrader co-founder, William Foot commented: “Friends of mine worry about spending as little as £20 on the web, so when we launched Landlord Trader, we knew we would be asking a lot of our users.
“Yet provided the price is right, buy-to-let investors are willing to bid for houses with little more to go on than a photograph and a few key figures.
“LandlordTrader’s users are using the site as an investment sourcing tool. Provided the purchase makes sound financial sense and the buyer instructs professionals to carry out prudent due diligence as a matter of course, there is no need to view the property first. “
While ‘blind buying’ is new to the residential property market, investing in commercial property has typically focussed more strongly on financial factors.
Colin Barber of leading online commercial property listing site, Propex, commented: “What we’re seeing now is the rise of financial over emotional values when it comes to investing in the residential market.
“While investing in commercial property has always been led by financial sense, the residential property market has traditionally taken more emotive factors into account.
“Curb appeal, décor, ambience and location typically play a big part in the purchasing decision.
“Nowadays, with the tremendous rise in the number of property investors, there’s likely to be a big increase in the number of people looking to buy residential property online.
“Sensibly, interest in financial gain becomes far more important than the colour of the wallpaper.”
“This theme is expected to snowball with the advent of residential SIPPs come April 2006.”
