Reaching out to russian buyers
The most popular countries and property types searched for by Russian buyers are not necessarily the ones that you might expect. We have recently been doing some analysis of search volumes by Russian users, for our new Russian Language Property Portal and used the Russian word for "property" as the basis, a term that has around 1 million monthly searches in Russian. The results were pretty surprising.
4 countries dominated the international sector:
Term Monthly Volume
Property in Spain 8100
Property in Germany 3600
Property in Ukraine 2900
Property in Bulgaria 1600
The lower than expected volumes shouldn't be misconstrued. Deeper investigation reveals that far from indicating that the market potential is less than hoped, the online behavioral patterns reveal that destinations don't play anywhere near as big a part in the way that Russians search for property online:
Term Monthly Volume
House / Houses 2.3 million
Flat / Flats 1.3 million
Land 750,000
Cottages 330,000
New Build 90,000
Commercial Property 50,000
Country Property 18,000
Overseas Property 17,000
Villas 15,000
Elite Property 12,000
Investment Property 10,000
Buyers in Russia seem to be much less focused in the locations that they are searching for and much more geared towards the class of property. They know what they want, but they don't yet know enough about the different international markets to have a good idea of where they want it.
No doubt this trend will Change, as the proliferation of overseas property magazines currently in publications help to educate buyers about the hottest destinations around the world.