Significant growth in domain name registrations for the property market

Property registrations now running at 2,000 a month

"Not all domain names that include physical addresses are used to sell properties such as homes and business premises," says SIDN Marketing Manager Michiel Henneke. "Some are used to promote active businesses, such as shops and cafés, for example. Nevertheless, we are definitely seeing more address-based domain names that point to dedicated real estate sites. The trend was flagged up by an SIDN Labs study in 2022.That was followed up by sampling in summer 2023, which showed that about 2,000 domain names a month are being registered for selling properties. However, the growth in property registrations seems to have slackened, perhaps because the housing market has changed."

Use of property sites by estate agents

Like all other .nl domain names, names relating to property addresses are registered through .nl registrars. Software company MTMO is a good example, registering a steady stream of address-based domain names for customers. "We enable estate agents to stand out from the competition and to reinforce their reputations," says MTMO's Chief Executive Dennis Gaemers. In response to growing demand from estate agents for new forms of promotion, we developed a system that makes it straightforward to create a dedicated website for any given property, in the estate agent's house style. The domain name is compiled using the formula www.[street_name][property_nummer].nl. And the site can accommodate all the information and resources that the estate agent wants to share about the property: description, media, documents, details of the neighbourhood, plans and so on."

Role of the housing market

"In the period when the housing market was buoyant and properties were selling quickly, address-based domain names mainly served as a new promotional vehicle for estate agents," explains Dennis. "It was a unique selling point, which helped agents stand out and win customers. Slicker, more professional property marketing tactics meant more vendors using the estate agent's services. Now, the main function of the domain names and associated websites is to boost the footfall of potential buyers. It's the same in all segments of the housing market. A dedicated domain name helps an estate agent get a property noticed and opens the way for advertising, raising the property's profile even further. It also facilitates analysis: the agent can see how popular a property is, how many people from the region visit the website, and how many views the website gets, compared with the Funda property sales platform. Property vendors also benefit from the use of a dedicated domain name. More people see the property online, leading to more viewings and more offers, often driving up the price."

What's the situation with Funda?

"On the Dutch housing market, about 6 out of 10 searches are via Funda. That easily makes funda.nl the biggest property search site in the Netherlands. So using Funda often makes good sense for estate agents," Dennis continues. "As a test, we once stopped using Funda for a couple of weeks, and relied exclusively on a property website in combination with property-specific Google advertising. The property website attracted a lot of traffic, showing that such sites are a valuable adjunct to Funda. After all, the more people you get to show an interest, the better." Dennis doesn't see the use of address-based domain names as a passing fad. "Competition amongst estate agents is increasingly stiff, so there's a strong incentive to invest in good marketing and promotion. The analyses we do here at MTMO consistently show that this form of marketing works," concludes Dennis.

Visit stats.sidnlabs.nl for more information about .nl domain name registrations and the associated trends.