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Why we are obsessed with seeing houses on the Internet that we will never buy

2023-06-10T04:57:44.021Z

Highlights: Beyond Idealista, real estate agencies such as Fantastic Frank or The Modern House have revolutionized the way we see residences. Imagining living in those idyllic houses, establishing a platonic relationship with space that does not exist, is an expanding sport on the internet. While it is true that most do not look as a future owner or tenant, they do to fantasize about their lives in the English countryside or in the heart of the fashionable city. It is that kind of love at first sight that makes many people obsessed with looking at agencies beyond the intention of buying or renting a property.


Beyond Idealista, real estate agencies such as Fantastic Frank or The Modern House have revolutionized the way we see residences, creating the need to 'scroll' through their catalogs and even the real estate sector. Imagining living in these idyllic environments is an expanding sport on the internet.


The journalist Juanjo Villalba wrote in the middle of the pandemic about the weakness for looking at beautiful spaces and the phenomenon of designporn during confinement. How the decoration is a refuge in difficult times and creates a sense of security and attachment. And it is true, there is a kind of familiarity and comfort when we look at other people's homes, something similar to the pleasure that comfort food gives on a plate of pasta on a Tuesday night. And it is not surprising, living in a hyperconnected society and fascinated with productivity, that people look for virtual spaces where they can imagine a better life.

All of the above makes sense when, in addition, comments appear in forums and social networks of people who look at houses for pure leisure, describing their ideal breakfast in the image of a kitchen with views. Bea de Lara and Julio de Manuel asked the same question in their FAQ Adulting newsletter a few months ago. While De Manuel compared apartment prices and made calculations of what he could afford – or not – if he was kicked out of his apartment, De Lara became curious about those expensive houses for sale and their decoration. At that point, both realized that other friends and colleagues were also going through the same thing. "It was equal parts anxiety and fantasy," Bea says. "I think we like to feed that constant fantasy of and if (it were rich) that we have. Imagine living there and fantasizing about a better life." But they are sure that looking at flats in any real estate portal is also a perfect excuse to steal decorative ideas and adapt them to your own home.

Read moreThe 'cabin phenomenon' or why everyone longs to live in a cabin

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A post shared by Fantastic Frank Real Estate (@fantasticfrank)

In short, it is that kind of love at first sight that makes many people obsessed with looking at agencies beyond the intention of buying or renting a property. Imagining living in those idyllic houses, establishing a platonic relationship with space that does not exist, is an expanding sport on the internet. While it is true that most do not look as a future owner or tenant, they do to fantasize about their lives in the English countryside or in the heart of the fashionable city. Júlia (41 years old), an illustrator from Barcelona, confesses that it gives her pleasure to look at apartments in Idealista. "In general, it's like a form of escape, I look for places I would like to live. But I'm also a voyeur, I like to imagine how families lived in those places through their decorations."

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A post shared by Fantastic Frank Lisbon (@fantasticfranklisbon)

Much of the blame lies with Fantastic Frank, who 13 years ago revolutionized the real estate world and changed the conception of how homes for rent and sale should be. The secret of its success is to conceive a space in which potential customers see its real possibilities, turning every image that is seen into a home. Their motto is Inspire to buy and boy do they get it. Present in five countries, including Spain ―with offices in Mallorca, Ibiza and Barcelona―, the company was born in 2010, in a teenage era of the internet where only the typical floor ads with images made with wide angle and excessively retouched were seen. Its founders, the Swedes Tomas Backman, Sofie Ganeva, Swen Wallén and Mattias Kardell, were clear that they needed to escape from this unattractive and excessively technical topic, becoming the pioneers of a marketing strategy that aimed at an audience in love with interior design and the aesthetics of magazines such as Wallpaper*, Elle Decor or Architectural Digest. . In this way, they achieved the perfect cross between an interior design magazine and the real estate business. The worldwide recognition was immediate and its explosion in the digital world too, getting more than a million and a half visits on average per month on its website and more than 2,000 properties sold in these years. Kinfolk magazine included the four creators, in 2017, in its list of the 40 most important entrepreneurs in the world.

Jane Austen villas and the Spanish touch

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His formula soon moved to other countries, with The Modern House at the helm. This real estate in the United Kingdom is one of the main international references today. It has almost 700,000 followers on Instagram, which has catapulted many of its properties to the lists of most beautiful and viral houses on the internet and has made them publish, on their own merits, several books on decoration and architecture. Of course, its catalog is only suitable for millionaire pockets, since the average value of a property listed in the agency is 1.1 million pounds.

Although he was born in 2005, it was not until 2015 when he took the leap. Matt Gibberd and Albert Hill, its promoters, came from the world of decoration and architecture publishing. Its concept is similar to that of the Swedes, predominating the editorial line over the sale, and a magazine aesthetic, establishing its own style to this day. They are credited with rewriting the rules of real estate agencies with a philosophy that is based on the strength of design, light and space, to help people live in a more reflective and beautiful way. In addition, as part of their business ideology, they have the B Corp certification of sustainability and social and environmental impact.

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A shared publication of Fantastic Frank Palma (@fantasticfrankpalma)

The Modern House has specialized in the sale and promotion of modernist and twentieth century architecture in the United Kingdom, listing icons of minimalism and brutalism or apartments even in the very Barbican complex in London. In fact, its very name is inspired by the modernist movement, specifically, in the book of the rationalist architect Francis Yorke, The Modern House (1934), which introduced this type of architecture to the general English public.

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In 2021 they launched Inigo, their little sister, dedicated exclusively to historic homes that are part of the British heritage, with an archive of spectacular estates in rural areas and country houses of the Victorian and Georgian period, typical of the literature of Jane Austen and that generate addiction among the public. The key to its fame is to tell the history of the place in depth and with its editorial touch, creating a very tangible imaginary that brings the reader closer to that feeling of escapism and fantasy of living in a home like that.

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A shared publication of The Home Hunter | A different real estate agency (@thehomehunter_)

In Spain, the Catalan name is given by the Catalan The Home Hunter, which was born in 2013 by Tessa Muga and Román Macià. They define themselves as a real estate oasis and an agency adapted to the new times and the language of social networks and the internet. Although they list their apartments on the web, their main communication channel is Instagram, where they have the largest community within the Spanish real estate sector. Every day they publish in the stories of their profile the properties available for rent and sale in the cities of Barcelona and Madrid ―where they operate―, and that they manage through appointments by their WhatsApp number. Flats that, many times, are rented or sold in less than 48 hours. The company was developed with the idea of changing the real estate world nationally in a positive way, with a work policy away from the competition and aggressiveness that are so present in this sector. And in 10 years they have transformed the way of seeing the product and the customer, with a young and close team that moves away from jacket and tie suits.

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A shared publication of The Home Hunter | A different real estate agency (@thehomehunter_)

That is why their number one priority is to create homes, houses in which they themselves would live. A letter of introduction that made them the pioneers in Spain of the so-called home staging, the decoration of the space to market it and teach the possibilities to future customers, managing to sell in record time flats that had been barely receiving visits for years. "When we started, there were still no good camera phones or much intention in the ads. The sector was very damaged after the crisis," says Macía, from The Home Hunter. "Now we work on image, communication and, most importantly: dealing with customers. It is important to accompany him and empathize with him."

The team is clear that decorating a flat well helps people to locate themselves. "90% of people do not know how to visualize a space and 70% of the purchase is emotional. It is difficult to see a location and make a decision in a short time, so home staging helps us see the capabilities, "says Muga. Regarding the phenomenon of compulsively looking at houses in the different reference portals, they are clear that it is due to a desire to change to a better place, but also to curiosity: "Gossip for gossip, knowing who lives there or how people live is something that attracts us," says Tessa.

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A shared publication of The Home Hunter | A different real estate agency (@thehomehunter_)

The phenomenon of stylish real estate has revolutionized in recent years a rising market with a demanding public. After the pandemic, this audience has realized that it needs a change, feeling that it can aspire to something better in the future, giving free rein to that fantasy that the protagonist of Fiddler on the Roof sang in his day: "If I were rich".

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2023-06-10

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