Top Property Portal Mobile Apps Around the World

The real estate industry is constantly evolving. Property companies are continuously finding new ways to make the daunting ordeal of searching for and purchasing a house easier, faster, and more tech-savvy. One popular way of accomplishing this is with user-friendly apps. 

OnlineMarketplaces.com had a closer look at 14 widely used portals around the global real estate industry to find out what they're doing well, what could be improved on, and how portals can take the next step towards the perfect real estate listing.

Popular Portal Apps Worldwide

The Americas

Should I use the Zillow app?

Zillow is one of the most powerful real estate companies in the world and has the most popular real estate app in America. With its popular and trusted valuation feature, Zestimates, it's the go-to app for the average American... but it isn't quite as high-quality as some of its rivals.

Pros:

• Zillow's free Zestimates offering is a well-known and widely used tool, though the estimated value of a property will only be as accurate and up-to-date as the data that powers Zillow's engine.
• Video tours are fairly common, though virtual tours aren't quite as ubiquitous yet.
• Price and tax history of the property, as well as the public tax history, are also included.

Cons:

• Property values and asking prices can sometimes become outdated if Zillow doesn't keep on top of changes.

Is Trulia different to Zillow?

Trulia is a subsidiary of portal giant Zillow. While Zillow has its own app (which is only available to users in the United States), Trulia is a popular alternative that is also available to international users. The app holds an average rating of 4.75 across the Google and Apple Play stores.

Pros:

• The excellent 'What Locals Say' section should be a benchmark for all portals.

Is Redfin better than Zillow?

Simply put, Redfin is faster and more accurate than Zillow. Redfin's portal tends to be more up-to-date and sensitive to, for example, changes in asking prices—this is reflected on its mobile app.

Pros:

• The initial search function when you open the app is straightforward and intuitive.
• 'Draw your Search Area' is a great feature, and increasingly important in modern apps.
• Mortgage pre-approval option is available at the top of the listing—including an estimated cost per month.
• Useful information including flood risks and neighbourhood info is an added bonus.
• Listings are optimised to encourage browsers to schedule tours with an agent.

Cons:

• No paragraph breaks on property descriptions make for difficult reading.

Should I use Realtor.com to search for a property?

Realtor.com was one of the first major portals to introduce augmented reality with 'Street Peek' and 'Sign Snap', two features launched in 2017 that took smartphone technology and property transactions to a new level.

Pros:

• Sign Snap taps into a smartphone’s GPS and image recognition capabilities, allowing users to snap a photo of a For-Sale sign to immediately display the listing details of the property. See Realtor.com's promo video below:

Is Realtor.ca the best place to search for property in Canada?

Despite being Canada's number-one portal, a 3.2 rating on the Google app store is a bit disappointing, probably because some basic functionalities are missing or unoptimised.

Pros:

• The 'Local Demographics' section is a great touch.
• The virtual tour option is in-depth and includes measurements.

Cons:

• The video tour is a slideshow of images—and navigating them on mobile is finicky.
• Having to download the floorplan as an external file isn't very tech-savvy.
• No paragraph breaks on property descriptions make for difficult reading.
• The mortgage calculator option isn't on the listing itself (it's hidden in the menu).

Brazil: How useful is the Quinto Andar app?

Quinto Andar has raised the best part of $1Bn since its inception in 2012, and has blown past unicorn status with an astonishing $5.1Bn valuation in 2021.

Pros:

• A solid app and search experience from top to bottom.
• Video tours are prominently featured... but they all seem to be silent!
• The app appears to have integration with WhatsApp for users arranging property visits.

Cons:

• Listings aren't organised in as user-focused a way as they could be—Quinto Andar has its 'Why buy with us?' section above key segments like the property description and amenities. It would be better to fix the content hierarchy in this case.
• The app appears to only support Brazilian Portuguese.

Europe

Is Rightmove the biggest portal in the UK and should I use the Rightmove app?

Rightmove is the UK market leader and its app is clearly well-liked, with an average rating of 4.75.

Pros:

• All the expected bells and whistles you would expect from a market leader.
• Nice interface, features including a mortgage calculator and stamp duty calculator.
• Registered users can add Notes to listings.

Should I use the Zoopla app?

Particularly more popular with Android users than Rightmove’s app, Zoopla’s app has an average rating of 4.6. The app has a tracking feature that keeps tabs on a user’s home price and offers real-time notifications for property updates. 

Pros:

• The onboarding section when you open the app is good for both buyers and sellers.
• You can download full property details and Energy Performance Certificates directly from listings.
• A listing history is also provided, including the date the property was listed, and the listing price.

Should I use the OnTheMarket app?

One of OnTheMarket's core offerings is the 'Only With Us' offer that publishes listings a full day before competitors Rightmove and Zoopla. If you're actively looking for a property in the UK, this is enough of a selling point to attract users to the app independently of any in-app features. However, a 4.3 average rating across both major app stores is lower than Rightmove and Zoopla.

Pros:

• Spotlight properties really do stand out on the results page—this is great for agents paying for premium listings.
• Only With Us timer (before the listing appears on other portals) is a nice touch.
• "Added today" and 'Reduced Today' tags make for an enticing search experience.
• Nearby schools are a welcome addition to the search experience.

Cons:

• The disclaimer section on the app is given far too much prominence.
• Meanwhile, the full property description lacks homogenous formatting, and is placed inside a fairly ugly popup box!
• One listing had a floorplan in the listings' photo album, but the floor plan section of the listing was unresponsive. Glitches like this are annoying during a property search.

Where can I search for properties with Idealista?

There’s a very good reason that Idealista is at the forefront of Spain and Portugal’s real estate markets, with further coverage in Italy. The app is straightforward and offers 3D floor plans, Google street-style walk-throughs, and a special feature that allows users to peruse house prices wherever they are.

Pros:

• The virtual tours provided by Floorfy are top-quality.
• There are plenty of language options for international, multilingual users.
• Idealista offers varied search options, including a "draw your area" and a "search by phone" option.

How good is the SeLoger app for buying property in France?

SeLoger is France’s premier property portal, with an average rating of 4.65 across Google's and Apple's app stores.

Pros:

• Draw your own search area. SeLoger lets you set your search to an adjustable area between 1km-30km.
• The listings are packed with useful information; the 'geo-risks' section—which shows a listing's predisposition for phenomena including flood risks, earthquakes and volcanic activity—is an excellent addition.

Cons:

• The app is French language only, a disappointment for non-French speakers searching for property in France.*
• No virtual or video tours. This is becoming a standard for most modern apps and we would have expected to see something along these lines.

*Note that SeLoger isn't the only app to be in its native language. For example, Quinto Andar (Brazilian Portuguese), Hemnet (Swedish) and Anjuke (Chinese) also lack English options.

Asia and Oceania

What makes Domain's real estate app different?

Domain is one of Australia’s biggest portals, and the app offers nice Inspector Planner feature, a calendar for scheduling property inspections quickly and easily.

Through the Domain app, you can find listings by highlighting an area on a map by drawing the shape with your finger with the Map Search feature. Another feature that sets it apart from the rest is its use of QR codes. Find one in a Domain magazine and snap a picture of it to connect with its corresponding listing.

Does Bayut have an app?

Bayut is a leading Asian portal operating out of the UAE. It is a modern app with a nice UI, with an average rating of 4.7 across the Google and Apple Play stores. Interestingly, users can sort their search results with 'TruChecked' properties (the highest level of verification) shows the value of guiding users towards listings they can trust implicitly.

Pros:

• TruCheck verification by Bayut guarantees that the listing is both real and available, for a more secure, serious search (see below).
• Three types of floorplans (3D live, 3D image, and 2D image) leave nothing to the imagination.
• Price trends and property history (both new features) are ultra-modern and desirable to property buyers.

Cons:

• Poorly formatted listing description continues to be a problem.

Should I use the MagicBricks app to search for property in India?

Over in India, the Magicbricks app unfortunately fails to match up to major portals worldwide. The biggest disappointment is that the app has a slow response time, and took us to a web browser instead of being a full app experience in and of itself. Not only that, but it restricts basic information to everyday browsers...

Cons:

• You can't view images—or prices—unless you request them from an agent. Not a good look for a portal whose app description boasts "the most intuitive property search app experience in India"...

Africa

How good is the Property24 app for buying and selling property in South Africa?

With an average rating of 4.6, Property24 is a highly trusted real estate app for buyers and sellers in South Africa. Though lacking some ultra-modern features, Property24 does bring some ideas of its own to the table.

Pros:

• A nifty 'Points of Interest' section on every listing shows nearby landmarks including museums, churches, schools, sports and leisure spaces, hospitals—even the closest McDonald's restaurant—all by distance from the property's address.
• An additional 'Recent Sales' section shows the address, sale price, and sale month information. A CTA to see more recent sales offers is populated with data as far back as 1906, though specific sales prices aren't always available.
• A mortgage calculator is also included.

Cons:

• Virtual and video tours appear to be missing from the app.

Conclusions

Transparency is more important than ever

There are so many excellent features around the world of property portals. There are two key factors that make apps stand out: the inclusion of 'basic' industry features that users need, and the addition of supplementary features that users want.

While the inclusion of photos and prices remain ubiquitous worldwide, other key information like commute distances and local school options are becoming much more common on real estate listings, especially in the U.S.

It's difficult to judge what features users want on an individual basis, but transparency in all forms is welcome. The "What Locals Say" section on Trulia was a particular highlight, while the "Local Demographics" information on Realtor.ca was an unexpected perk.

In short, the more information you can pack into a property listing, the better.

Virtual tours, or Video?

Virtual tours are definitely becoming more common on portals worldwide, but there is still some work to be done on integrating virtual tour technology, especially in Australia, where users are instead recommended to book viewings from apps.

Meanwhile, video tours continue to underwhelm worldwide, with limited portals integrating them into listings. Of the portals that do use video tours, low production values limit their usefulness, with slideshow-style compilations of images the most common form.

Spanish mid-term rental platform Spotahome is the best example of setting an industry benchmark. The live, explanatory tours by "Homecheckers" offer a digital, guided experience that shows off all angles of a property—any portal seriously considering video tours should use these as the natural starting point.

Property Descriptions need work, worldwide.

Portals worldwide appear to struggle to write user-friendly property descriptions. A lack of scannability is rife on portal apps and should be addressed on a case-by-case basis.

It may sound simple, but a paragraph break makes a big difference when reading about a property, especially for longer descriptions. Use them!

Meanwhile, market leaders like Rightmove and Zillow have thousands upon thousands of agents listing properties on their portals, and this means a lack of standardisation—specifically when individual agents write property descriptions differently from their peers. It's difficult to control, for sure, but our inner stickler for details would like perfectly homogenous listings everywhere!

Lost in translation = disappointment.

Having an English (or other second-language) option should be a priority for any app where international buyers are concerned.

European portals Hemnet (Swedish) and SeLoger (French) are only available in their native languages, as are Asian portals including China's Anjuke.

On the flip side of the same coin, Idealista offers no fewer than 18 languages—the perfect international real estate app.

What else can portals improve?

MagicBricks in India is an unfortunate example of a portal app that heavily restricts access to users who don't want to share their personal details (email and phone) in the first instance—including not showing photos to browsers who don't enter an email address.

We noticed more apps offering a "discard" option for listings users no longer want to see. An excellent quality-of-life offering. This would be a nice-to-have option on more apps.