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Print remains an important component of real estate marketing, according to agents, despite new data showing the continued collapse of revenue from print advertising.
The latest Standard Media Index (SMI) data has highlighted the decline of print income, with newspapers down more than $56 million for the year, while digital revenues have continued to soar.
According to SMI, the Australian ad market finished the financial year up 1.9 per cent with an overall spend of $7.5 billion, however, print advertising recorded double digit year-on-year declines with the newspaper market contracting from $997.9 million in June 2013 to $829.4 million last month, a 16.9 per cent decline.
The SMI data showed newspaper revenues have declined 39 per cent since 2010.
Despite these figures, real estate agents appear to still see a huge value in print advertising.
Matt Lancashire, of Ray White New Farm in Queensland, who recently said print advertising was far from dead after one of his vendors was willing to pay $36,000 for one print ad, believes some agents out there are "ignorant" about searching for the best price for a seller.
"They have no idea about challenging the market to get the best price," Mr Lancashire told Real Estate Business.
“If you're relying on one method, just the internet, you're not capturing every single buyer in the marketplace,” he said.
Mr Lancashire said he recently marketed two similar properties at around the same price, one using both print and online, while the other just online.
He said the property which appeared in print and online had about 50 interested parties walk through the open house, while the property just listed online has just four.
Adam Denina, principal at Starr Partners Parramatta, agreed that print still plays a vital role in reaching customers.
“We get better quality buyers from print ads in the local newspaper ... from people that live in the area and love the area,” said Mr Denina, who added that he hasn’t seen any drop off in the past 12 months from using print.
Namir Mikha, partner and sales director at Laing+Simmons Newtown, told Real Estate Business that he "100 per cent believes" that print still has a major place in the real estate marketing mix.
"I believe in it,” he said.
"The numbers don’t lie based on the properties we sell. With the internet, it’s limited the number of inquiries we get. With the newspaper [Inner West Courier] it doubles the inquiries.
"If a vendor can't see that paying three grand more [for a print as] might get them $100,000 more on their property, then they're using the wrong agent," he added.
