Home Hunts Receives Double Win at Prestigious Property Awards

Home Hunts directors Francois-Xavier de Vial and Tim Swannie receiving the awards

This week Home Hunts received a double win at the prestigious International Property Awards sponsored by Virgin Atlantic and Yamaha, which was held at The Grosvenor House Hotel, in London’s Mayfair, on Tuesday 24 September, 2013.

Following a year of unrivalled success, during which Home Hunts has completed on more luxury property sales than previously experienced, and received the largest number of international enquiries than ever before, the team picked up a highly commended accolade for Best Estate Agency France and, for the second year running, received the top five-star award for Best Real Estate Agency Website France.

The European Property Awards are part of the long established International Property Awards, the world’s richest competition when measured by the value of the projects entered. A high-calibre jury of 70 international experts identify the most significant building projects as well as the highest quality European real estate agencies.

The esteemed top prize for best website rewards many years of continual development work that founders and directors Tim Swannie and François Xavier de Vial have invested into the Home Hunts website. With around 82 million visitors each year, France is the most visited destination in the world, and Home Hunts has worked tirelessly to capture the attention of potential prime property buyers with its user-friendly search facility and detailed, image-centric property profiles.

Despite fierce competition from other property websites, Home Hunts has ensured that its website stands out from the crowd and achieves maximum global exposure to reach prime property buyers in all corners of the world. High net worth individuals, celebrities, the Hollywood elite, royalty and blue chip company owners all make up a large part of Home Hunts’ exclusive internet audience. And their interaction with the website plays a major role in property-viewing choices, and, as a result, the decision to commit and invest.

“We have seen a huge change in the way people search for property in recent years and whilst we advertise extensively in the press, work with many international partners and receive a lot of repeat business and recommendations, over 60% of our enquiries are made over the net,” said Tim. “Our website attracts a huge global audience and has always been at the centre of our business. We are very proud of the site and we get lots of positive feedback from clients.”

Although Home Hunts has now won the best real estate website award for the second year in a row, the site is still going to be developed further throughout the rest of 2013 and early 2014. Changes such as platform optimisation, which will make the site easier to use on tablets and smartphones, and personalised search functionality will mean that users can look for properties on the go and save a selection to view later.

“We are constantly looking for ways to improve our website and the new version, which we are working on at present, will be even more user friendly,” said Tim. “It will be optimised for all platforms including tablets and mobile phones, and will be far more interactive, so that clients can log in and save searches, choose favourite properties, communicate directly with the team and set up alerts. We are really excited about the next phase of the website.”

Home Hunts’ award-winning website can be found at: www.home-hunts.com, and if further information on any of the luxury properties is required, call the French office directly on: +33 (0)970 44 66 43