Property search… done properly

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Posted By Neoco

Whilst looking for somewhere to live in London (that offers more than one bedroom for less than £1 million pounds and therefore is affordable on the income of someone who doesn’t own an Arab state’s oil reserves) I recently stumbled upon probably the best property website – Nestoria.

Nestoria is a website along the same lines as rightmove.com and FindaProperty.com – lots of properties brought together by one website. Where it differs is in the implementation of this idea. In my mind, Nestoria is how you would build a website to search for property if you really sat down and thought about it.

Borrowing heavily from Google, Nestoria has a number of features that make it stand out from the crowd:

Uncluttered entry point
Using the classic Google-style search page, Nestoria keeps the homepage simple. Everything is focussed on the one job at hand – identifying what you’re looking for.
Intuitive functionality
Start typing and a list of possible towns and areas appear. Sliders to pick minimum and maximum price as well as number of bedrooms. The whole site is filled with small features like this that make it very easy to use.
API
Again, taking the lead from Google, Nestoria offer an API to allow other developers to use the core engine. This feature in itself could well be the key to success – just look at the success of the Google maps API, used widely on the Internet (and on this site!)
Cutting edge
Nestoria provide not only an RSS feed of properties but also a geographically-focussed KML feed. The look and feel of the site is slick and technology is well used to improve the user experience. There’s even a Facebook app (although I’m not 100% convinced it has any purpose!)

It is interesting to see just how focussed the site is on the single job of finding property. There are no real details of any of the properties (pictures, floor plans etc..), it simply links off to other websites for these details.

The website is all about locating a property in an area, and finding out about that area. This is where Nestoria excels, providing information on census, local government, fire, health, parking, schools, shops, tax, transport and even photos of the area – everything you could need to know to get a feel for an area.

If there are any downsides it is perhaps that you can’t look at any photos of the houses (usually the one quick thing that gives me a thumbs up or thumbs down). And maybe the name “Nestoria”!

Overall a well executed property search engine… and I’m off to find a house!

Tags Google housing letting london Nestoria Please can I sleep on your floor property rental review Right Move Search website

http://www.nestoria.co.uk Ed

Hi Dave,

Ed from Nestoria here. Many thanks for the very positive review. You’re right that we focus only on one thing – helping people find properties quickly and easily. In that sense I wouldn’t say we’re similar to property portals like FAP or RM. Those are great sites for all the detailed information around the complicated home buying process. We provide a very different and much simpler service. We would appreciate any suggestions from your readers as to what we could do better.

Glad you like the KML and Facebook app. Just today we rolled out support for GPX feeds (ie put property info on your GPS). That’s probably not everyone’s cup of tea, but hopefully a few folks will find it useful. Anyone who’s interested in what we’re up to should follow our progress on our blog.

Regarding the name, fair enough, but we like it – and you try finding a name that works in multiple countries – we also offer http://www.nestoria.es and http://www.nestoria.it – and where the domain is available. Not easy I can assure you!
http://www.uklandandfarms.co.uk/ Jimmy Nile

If you are looking to purchase farm land or farmhouses, then the above site is very good.
neoco

Included Jimmy’s comment above – even though it is a shameless plug – as it is nice to see what a London budget will buy when you head out to the country… a lot more.
http://www.findaproperty.com Tony

I read your post with some interest, not least because the entire process of searching for property online has evolved so much in the last 3 years.

Whilst Rightmove remain the UK market leaders in this field primarily through their dominant brand recognition, FindaProperty.com offers insightful and informative area guides and property market data to help users with their property search, something which has helped them retain the crown in the key areas of London and South East England.

In the last few years a whole host of new property portals have attempted to enter this increasingly competitive online marketplace, many with limited success. With that said, I believe you have identified one of the true contenders in Nestoria. For many years FindaProperty.com have provided a base set of property search tools alongside area specific data such as house prices, council tax bands, crime stats, local photos and area guidebooks, Nestoria have taken a selection of the best bits from the leading, established property websites and implemented them in a fresh and functional way which is both attractive and informative to users.

Neoco