Luxury Real Estate websites
Luxury real estate websites focus on displaying the finest properties. Often, they do not display properties under a certain price tag. Why don’t we list luxury properties on Craigslist or OLX and other general classifieds websites? Because real estate agents want to reach out to high-net-worth individual (HNWI), which is the niche segment targeted by luxury portals. When you list luxury properties on general classified websites, you get too many contacts from curious people who simply waste your time.
Are luxury portals necessarily global platforms, or can they be specific to one country?
First, you need to know that property portals are often limited to one country. For example, Zillow.com and Realtor.com focus on the USA. Yet, the leader Zillow has announced an expansion to Canada. Therefore, platforms are often global. In Europe, Idealista operates in 3 countries, and companies such as REA Group operate property portals in 10+ countries.
For luxury, this is even more true. Indeed, leading luxury real estate brands such as Christies or Sotheby’s operate globally. Consequently, their advertising platforms need to be global actors too.
Can a luxury platform be exclusively local?
Any luxury company, whether selling jewels and watches to Asian buyers like Chaumet, or real estate, has a global audience. However some brands are more global than others. Louis Vuitton, world’s most valuable luxury fashion and accessories brand, receives 8 million visits from over 200 countries. Now, let’s get to real estate.
Leading luxury real estate brands
Before real estate portals, we should adress real estate brands. First of which, Sotheby’s International Realty. The website SothebysRealty.com receives 3 million visits from 200+ countries, similarly to Louis Vuitton. Not surprising when you see that Sotheby’s has over 55,000 properties for sale, and “more than 19,000 sales associates located in approximately 850 offices in 65 countries and territories worldwide” (Wikipedia).
However, some luxury brands are not as global. For example, one of the French leading luxury brands is BARNES International Realty. Together with Coldwell Banker, Daniel Feau, Sotheby’s International Realty, Emile Garcin or Engel & Völkers, BARNES International Realty is definitely one of the leaders in France. While it is very strong in France and quite present in Europe, its presence worldwide is somehow not as strong as Sotheby’s as you can see below. This is why luxury property portals make sense. Indeed they can be truly global, and show listings for sale for all brands, for a better conversion (visits to leads).
Top 10 luxury real estate websites
The best luxury real estate websites are either those attracting more visits, or who enjoy a reputation that can be leveraged with property owners.
- MansionGlobal.com
- WallStreetJournal
- PrimeLocation
- LuxuryEstate.com
- LuxuryRealEstate.com
- Financial Times
- LuxuryPortfolio
- JamesEdition
- RobbReport
- LuxuryHomes
- BellesDemeures
- Lux-Residence.com
- Le Figaro Properties (also known as Propriétés Le Figaro)
- Forbes Global Properties
More information on these luxury portals:
- Mansion Global is the leading luxury real estate website in the United States
- The Wall Street Journal is a very powerful brand in the United States
- PrimeLocation.com is the leading luxury real estate website in the United Kingdom
- Zoopla is the #2 biggest property portal in the UK; both PrimeLocation and Zoopla belong to the same group, Zoopla Property Group (ZPG)
- Proprietes Le Figaro, Belles Demeures and Lux Residence are the 3 leading luxury property websites in France
- James Edition is a leading luxury marketplace
Getting more luxury buyers via your own website
However, if you want to get more luxury buyers for your properties, you should run well-designed Google Ads to get more high-quality enquiries. Click here to know more about this possibility, as we know the best Google Ads agency for Real Estate.
Naturally, we can challenge each of the portals named above. The first remark you could make, is that while in some countries there are clearly leading luxury portals such as BellesDemeures.com and ProprietesLeFigaro in France, this is much less the case in other countries. For example, in Spain the leading portals are Idealista and Fotocasa, and there is absolutely no leading portal dedicated to luxury. You just have to browse on Fotocasa or Idealista directly.
However, having said that, a portal such as LuxuryEstate.com is clearly gaining market shares, and becoming a global luxury platform.
How are they becoming global?
Multi-lingual website
Becoming a global luxury platform is a long and expensive battle. Indeed, buyers of luxury properties are multi-lingual. Some are Chinese, while others are German or French speaking. So, to become a global luxury platform, it takes a multi-lingual website, with investments in SEO on all of these languages.
Taking an example, if a Russian buyer for a villa in Cote d’Azur makes a search, you need to capture this buyer to be a credible luxury website. See my article about Russian buyers (click here) to understand more about what it means.
Properties all around the world
Another important factor is to have properties all around the world. Otherwise, Google will never rank properly the websites. Indeed, if those websites attract Russian or Chinese users for properties for sale in New York, but that they have 0 property to browse there, Google will over time de-classify the website due to a high bounce rate.
Top 4 luxury property portals in France
Does France’s luxury real estate deserve luxury property portals? Unlike Spain or Portugal, where Idealista or Fotocasa suffice, France has clear actors. Dedicated to luxury properties, these are the top 4 in France:
- BellesDemeures.com (800K visitors)
- ProprietesLeFigaro (650K visitors)
- Lux-Residence.com (380K visitors)
- Residences-Immobilier.com (250K visitors)
Notably, BellesDemeures and Lux-Residence belong to SeLoger Group. While ProprietesLeFigaro belongs to Figaro Classifieds. Finally, Residences-Immobilier.com pertains to the same holding as MaisonsetAppartements.fr.
