According to housing and investment expert Nick Millican, buying and selling property hasn’t always been easy, but with the rise of ‘ghost listings,’ the market has become even more difficult to navigate. These ‘ghost listings’ are properties listed on public portals like RightMove and Zoopla, but are listed as off-market, providing little to no details about the property in question.
He explains further on these real estate industry´s concerns. The properties listed tend to be of high value, ranging from a £25M Mayfair apartment to a £23M property by Buckingham Gate. Nick Millican adds that the listings for these properties only provide vague details, and if they do happen to come with pictures, they also provide very little detail about what the property actually looks like.
Those who choose to sell on off-market sites claim that it is to protect their privacy and is a way to prevent gaining a bad reputation if properties don’t sell quickly or are suddenly reduced in price, according to Nick Millican (Crunchbase).
While this may seem like a good compromise between buying privacy and gaining access to these high-value properties, real estate experts say that it may also attract buyers who are outside of the target audience. Nick Millican finally states that it could also be seen as frustrating for those who are interested in buying as public, well-detailed information is lacking from these listings.