Citylets published strong results for 2011 with visitor traffic up 22% on 2010 (source: Google Analytics) representing a full 200% rise on 2007. Enquiries to agents also rose by 21% (source: Citylets internal data).

We’re delighted to have maintained our strong growth trajectory of recent years operating in broadly the same geographies as 2010 and we are confident these results reflect not just a growth in the rental market, but a growth in our market share. 

Traffic to Citylets is now 3 times what it was just 4 years ago (source: Google Analytics 2007-2011)

 According to Experian Hitwise, Citylets averaged rank 74 in the property category (based on UK visits) in 2011, higher than any other dedicated residential letting site. Citylets was also the only site in its genre to maintain a top 100 position throughout the year & was regularly the most visited lettings site in the UK.

 Agent offices on site (Scotland & N Ireland) grew 12.5% from the previous year.  Interestingly, just over half of all Citylets’ Scottish clients are not subscribed to Rightmove. Citylets MD, Thomas Ashdown, commented: 

“Rightmove may be the UK’s overall biggest site, however in Scotland Citylets is the clear market leader for letting agents with 54% of clients not subscribed to Rightmove. In major cities like Edinburgh and Dundee, that increases to 85% and in Aberdeen it’s currently 65%.

 “These figures suggest that in urban Scotland, Citylets attracts the larger audiences relevant to our local clients. Indeed the figures seem to underline the fact that property markets are predominantly local and it is local presence that counts, not over-arching UK visitor numbers.”

Citylets Publishes Strong Results For 2011 is a post from: Citylets News

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The overall average monthly rent in Scotland now stands at £656, a rise of 1.9 % on Q4 2010. Meanwhile, the average time to let (TTL) figures rose slightly from 35 days in Q4 2010 to 39 days in Q4 2011.  Scotland-wide, the average rent for a two-bedroom flat rose 1.5% from £617 to £626 between the final quarter of 2010 and the same period in 2011. For one bedroom flats, the average rent rose 3.6% year on year, from £473 to £490.

Citylets Rent trends Q4 2011

Issue 20 of Citylets Rental Report caps five full years of analysis is a post from: Citylets News

With all the evidence suggesting that renting is fast becoming a long term option for many in Scotland and the rest of the UK, taking a rented property is no longer assumed to be a stepping stone to home ownership. As such, we wanted to create an ad which presented the rental option as ‘home’ and covered the core rental demographics. Shot in various locations around Edinburgh and Glasgow, we hope this is effectively & energetically communicated.

The campaign is the largest by Citylets to date with expenditure in the region estimated to be equivalent to around £1m nationally. We have also refreshed our website to provide a cleaner look and feel to the search experience. There will be new functionality for viewers and agents coming online in Q1 and Q2 of this year.

The ad can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tduK9AD-Ev8

New TV Ad is a post from: Citylets News

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We will have a branded presence throughout Princes Street and at The Concert in the Gardens on the night and positioned in areas to be covered by the TV cameras. The BBC, SKY and STV will all be covering the event including the world famous midnight firework display above the castle.

This years’ Concert in the Gardens headlines with Primal Scream covering their 90s classic album, Screamadelica.

This is our most exciting event sponsorship to date which should deliver our brand to a wide audience.

We know what we’ll be doing on New Years’ eve, but whatever you’re up to…have a good one- Merry Xmas & Happy New Year from all here at Citylets!

Sponsoring Edinburgh’s Hogmanay is a post from: Citylets News

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Citylets has developed Market Analysis tool Optilet to assist agents set the optimal rent by applying sophisticated analysis to the most recent market data.

Agents can now search for comparable properties by street, area or postcode and match by property type, level of furnishing, number of bedrooms and other criteria. This, in conjunction with agent expertise, allows rents to be set with a clear insight of how long the property should take to let at the asking amount.

Results can be displayed in either list or map format. The map displays the relation of rents of similar properties to precise location and the list format allows results to be ordered by criteria such as ‘time to let’.

Additionally Optilet shows the average comparable rent for the property compared to other types of property in the same area and also compared to the city-wide and national average.

Optilet draws on our expertise built up over the years through analysis work on our quarterly market reports.

For more info, please visit www.citylets.co.uk/optilet  

Optilet is a post from: Citylets News

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The encouraging news for property owners in Scotland is that average values have not deteriorated as dramatically as other Home Nations and are now 115% up on what they were in Feb 2002  (i.e. they have more than doubled in price in that time). However, a note of caution in this good news is that average prices might well be held up because  the mix of properties selling has shifted, with more large and expensive family homes selling over recent years and fewer affordable properties changing hands. Recent analysis by ESPC supports this view and shows that the number of 3 & 4 bedroom homes selling is now a larger proportion of the total sales than it was pre credit crunch. The  significance of the change in the mix of properties selling on the average price in Scotland has yet to be determined.

Northern Ireland have experienced a roller-coaster of a housing market during the last 10 years with an unsustainable explosion in prices from Feb 2006 to the high in Aug 2007.  Since then prices have come back with a bump and are now at the level they were 6 years ago.  This is obviously good news for those looking to buy now but not such a fillip for those that bought at the top of the market.

As ever with indices, so much of the interpretation can depend on the period you chose to start the index.  Its fair to say that the market in England was appreciating rapidly well before 2002, but comparable figures going back to the 1990s are not readily available for all the countries of the UK.

home nations house prices small

House Prices in Scotland holding up better than rest of UK is a post from: Citylets News

According to the latest quarterly figures for Q3 2011  landlords in the city are now charging an average £590 a month, little changed on the same period a year ago.

Chart_rent v house price index

Belfast rent prices hold up as house sales sag is a post from: Citylets News

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Citylets reports record volumes and rents in Q3 2011 is a post from: Citylets News

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The third quarter of the year is traditionally the busiest and once again both the monthly (August) and quarterly records fell.

Citylets.co.uk is continuing its TV investment throughout October.

Citylets.co.uk Wins Through on X-Factor is a post from: Citylets News

Record Traffic for Citylets.co.uk is a post from: Citylets News