We’ve launched a major initiative for the new homes market, showcasing our ongoing innovation to actively promote new-build properties and their benefits.
Our new affordability tool changes the way consumers search on property portals.
With just 1 in 20 homes listed on Zoopla being a new build, the affordability tool is a recommendation engine to help connect consumers with new homes.
The journey not only educates consumers on what they can afford but generates pre-qualified buyers for housebuilders with richer information about the buyer.
The tool forms a key part of our wider strategy to drive greater return on investment for housebuilders.
It targets the untapped 72% of Zoopla movers who are more likely to choose a new build if a scheme is available.
The initiative has already been adopted by Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon, Lovell Homes, Miller Homes and Keepmoat.
Our new affordability tool is a major initiative for the new homes market and showcases our ongoing innovation to actively promote new-build properties and their benefits.
The tool forms a key part of our wider strategy to drive an even greater return on investment for housebuilders. Designed to generate financially prepared, pre-qualified buyers exclusively for new-build properties, it’s already being trialled by major Zoopla partners including Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon, Lovell Homes, Miller Homes and Keepmoat.
For homebuyers, the tool directly addresses a critical question - what can I actually afford in today’s market? This is driving stronger buyer engagement than a general property search, delivering higher quality leads that are more likely to convert to reservation.
Try the affordability tool on Zoopla
Over the past 4 years the number of resale properties for sale per agent on Zoopla has doubled, whilst the number of new homes listings has remained the same. This creates a challenge within a traditional search experience with new homes listings now making up just 1 in 20 listings on Zoopla search results page.
We also know that affordability is the number one challenge, particularly for first-time buyers who have historically made up almost half of all new homes purchases. To solve this problem, and better connect buyers to new build listings, we built the affordability tool.
The affordability tool matches the unique benefits of your developments with suitable buyers, highlighting new homes based on exactly what they’re looking for and can afford.
With deposit, maximum budget, moving timeframe and property wishlist all taken into account, it funnels financially prepared buyers towards new builds in an innovative new consumer journey.
Buyers are using this tool to stay on Zoopla for longer, recording a higher dwell time than typical search journeys. This sustained engagement signals stronger new-build intent, giving housebuilders first access to serious buyers who are, crucially, ready to reserve a home.
Raising awareness of financial buying schemes is a key challenge we face together. With a significant 72% of Zoopla movers saying they're more likely to choose a new build if they can use a scheme, the tool capitalises on this untapped segment of the market. It seamlessly incorporates eligibility for schemes like Deposit Unlock and Own New Rate Reducer, driving conversion through financial clarity.
The tool generates a rich dataset behind every lead, providing unique insights into the buyer's true position. It’s designed to arm your sales teams with the knowledge they need to engage in meaningful, productive conversations from the first call.
The enriched insights include:
Deposit size
Maximum budget
Timeframe to move
Property preferences
This level of data empowers your sales teams to focus on buyers who are financially qualified and ready to engage, enabling more productive sales conversations and improving sales rates..
The tool directly addresses the market reality that 70% of buyers are open to new builds, but only 7% explicitly search for them. By integrating this affordability journey into our core search experience, we actively drive consideration from buyers who might otherwise overlook new-build stock.
This strategic focus has already delivered results: we’ve driven an overall 30% increase in new homes buyer lead volumes over the last year.
Speak to your account manager about how you can unlock high-quality leads by appearing in our affordability tool.
You’ll get:
increased visibility of your listings among engaged buyers and first-time buyers
matched with financially prepared homebuyers who show readiness to convert
greater awareness of the buying schemes available for your plots and properties
enriched insights into each lead, including budget, deposit, wishlist and moving timeframe
greater return on investment through a tool that focuses on propensity to convert, rather than simply lead volume.
Find out how we connect housebuilders with more motivated movers.
We try to make sure that the information here is accurate at the time of publishing. But the property market moves fast and some information may now be out of date. Zoopla accepts no responsibility or liability for any decisions you make based on the information provided.
Our Viability of Homebuilding Report reveals that building homes is not currently financially viable across 48% of the country, leading to four key reform recommendations that will support the new homes industry to increase housing delivery and build more homes.
Read more
Our latest innovations are designed to maximise conversion from high-intent property searchers, directly driving value for our partners.
Read more
A major vote of confidence in the strength of our new homes innovations and their strategic impact on ROI.
Read more