Our New Homes strategy: Smarter data, better leads, more value

We’re increasing our support for the new homes sector during 2026. Targeted investment, new tools and data-driven insights are making developments more visible to active homebuyers and yielding quality leads.

Our innovations saw us deliver a 53% year-on-year increase in new build leads for homebuilders in 2025. In a fiercely competitive resale market with limited buyer demand across the board, our investments and innovations are the difference in achieving strong sales and protecting your margins throughout the development lifecycle.

Now, we’re sharing our roadmap for supporting your success in 2026.

New pipelines: identifying buyers explicitly searching for new homes 

Our recent acquisition of newhomesforsale.co.uk, the UK's largest specialist new homes portal that generates approximately 170,000 qualified leads annually, offers a unique advantage. 

The acquisition shows how we're strengthening our investment in the new homes sector - expanding reach, deepening expertise and unlocking greater opportunities to drive exceptional conversion potential for our housebuilder partners.

Smart data and insight for high-intent leads

Our affordability tool is a stand-out addition to Zoopla in the last year, designed to educate buyers on affordability while increasing their exposure to new homes.

The tool acts as a simple yet rich data-capture journey. As well as gathering information on budget, deposit, mortgage eligibility and moving timelines, buyers are asked ‘would you be open to exploring new-build homes?’ — helping to create more precise, high-intent lead signals for developers.

New homes are then prioritised within matching results, with buying schemes clearly promoted. This enhances conversion potential, particularly when 72% of Zoopla movers say they’re more likely to choose a new build if they can use a scheme.

Early adopters, including Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon, Miller Homes and Keepmoat, are already benefiting from more informed, high-intent enquiries from buyers at the start of their journeys.

Alongside this, Development Insight Reports provide an additional layer of value - they equip you with actionable data to better understand local market dynamics, refine targeting and make more confident decisions across your developments. 

Enhanced awareness among motivated buyers

We're placing a strong focus on competitive visibility for new homes. We've already introduced changes designed to bring new-build properties to the forefront of the search journey, helping them compete more effectively with resale listings. 

The aim is to help you reach the 70% of Zoopla users who say they would consider a new home but don’t actively search for one.

We continue to put new homes front and centre during a movers’ time on Zoopla. Recent initiatives include:

• ‘Show new-build homes only’ tickbox on our buying home page

• Shining a spotlight on new-home buying schemes with a market-first search filter

• New-home friendly filters, such as homes with EV chargers

• Greater prominence on map view, so buyers find new homes that sit close to their original search

• Clearly highlighting new-build benefits on listing cards in search results

• Capturing demand earlier with pop-up contact forms embedded in brochures and virtual tours.

From off-plan to final plots: support for the whole lifecycle

Our new development lifecycle bundles help builders capitalise on our innovations by raising the profile of developments at every stage, from off-plan launch to final plots.

For example, our Development Accelerator bundle is delivering healthy return-on-investment during a development’s ‘in-life’ stage. It combines our highest performing listing, audience and brand products at a bundled rate. The result? Measurably improved engagement and clicks to site.

Matthew Foster, Head of Sales, Miller Homes North East, commented:

“Introducing Zoopla’s In-Life bundles to our live developments has had a noticeable impact on visibility within local markets, delivering significant improvements across key KPIs including clicks to site and overall leads.

“The product has provided a cost effective campaign platform to increase prominence against competitors and produced average engagement uplifts of +2,800% during December - a time of heightened competition and increased property availability.”

Getting to know you and your unique challenges

We want to understand housebuilders’ pain points so we can deliver bespoke solutions. We’ll be conducting extensive customer research with more than 25 developer partners, using your feedback to help us evolve and innovate.

Our goal is to evolve Zoopla as a true growth partner, ensuring our products, insights and experiences align closely with what developers need to drive results.