The project carried out by the Central Federation of Finnish Real Estate Agencies is about creating an impartial platform for comparing real estate agents. When the service is complete, it will help consumers to find the agent that best meets their needs. 

What kind of problem is the project trying to solve?

Most people rely on the help of a real estate agent when selling an apartment or property. Selecting an agent can be difficult, however, because there is not enough information available on the work of real estate agents. The sector requires more transparency that would boost the development of the sector and make the operation more transparent from the perspective of consumers and other actors in the real estate and construction sector.

A preliminary insight indicates that a service for comparing real estate agents is a long-awaited tool in the sector. The objective of this experimental project is to verify if the insight is correct.

The Central Federation of Finnish Real Estate Agencies is an impartial organisation that brings together the actors in this sector, making it a suitable operator to create a transparent and unbiased platform. 

Objective: Making it easier to select a real estate agent

The objective of this development project is to find out whether a digital service for comparing real estate agents would work and whether it is worth building. The project will form a basis for making decisions on further measures.

What is done in this project?

The project focuses on finding out and testing the kind of an online platform that would make it possible to evaluate and compare real estate agents in a manner that would serve Finnish consumers and actors in real estate and construction sector. The idea is to test an online platform that allows the users to review their real estate agents based on their experiences. When the number of reviews is high enough, the platform will provide consumers reliable information to help them select the real estate agent that best suits their needs.

The project will:

• Examine international and national practices of evaluating real estate agents;
• Develop the logic of evaluation and study when a consumer would be able to review a real estate agent;
• Include a customer survey to validate the added value that the service would provide to consumers;
• Carry out a lightweight mapping of the possibilities of using an open data platform in the real estate and construction sector; 
• Evaluate the total cost of the completed product (programming/implementation); 
• Implement the first demo version in order to collect information on customer needs and test the usability of the service in practice; 
• Define the boundary conditions of the service; 
• Test the attitudes of the actors in the real estate agency sector towards the service.

Who benefits?

If the findings in the experimental project indicate that the comparison service is worth implementing, it will benefit at least consumers and the real estate agency business and possibly other actors in the real estate and construction industry. Real estate agents that carry out their tasks well will receive positive feedback on their work, and consumers will be able to select a real estate agent based on reliable information.