Improving search efficiency in housing markets using online listings

Tien Foo Sing and Yiheng Zou

Real Estate Economics, 2024, vol. 52, issue 4, 1020-1044

Abstract: The use of online listing portals helps improve search efficiency in real estate markets. Unlike the traditional channel, buyers could search more properties and find ones with characteristics that were closer to their preferences via the online channel. Using the merged data sets containing online listings and transactions in the private residential property markets in Singapore, we found that real estate agents sell houses for an average premium of 4.21% using online listings relative to other agents using the traditional listing channel. The models use the propensity score matching approach to remove compositional differences in the samples and include property and spatial attributes in the controls, as well as the fixed effects on the agency, planning sector, and month‐year. Using only the matched online listing‐transaction samples, we found that exclusive listings, using more words and numeric in listing content, making listing descriptions easy to read, and selecting multiple listing portals are online listing strategies that enable real estate agents to sell houses faster and above the asking prices.

Date: 2024
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