Turning the Tide: How Developers Can Counter Negative Media Through Authenticity

By
Jake Taylor
October 24, 2024
3
min read
Share this post

Turning the Tide: How Developers Can Counter Negative Media Through Authenticity

How Urban.com.au is helping property teams counter sensationalised media coverage that unfairly damages buyer confidence in new property.

In recent times, mainstream media have resorted to sensationalised reporting, often painting a negative picture of the property development sector by focusing on a few notorious bad actors. When headlines scream about a "NSW developer" involved in questionable practices, the ripple effect casts a long shadow over the entire industry, unfairly damaging the reputation of all developers in the state.

1. Organisation Profile: Utilise Urban.com.au's platform to create detailed profiles for architects, developers, builders, and project marketers, showcasing the team behind each project to demonstrate their experience.
2. Communicate Vision and Expertise: Project teams should actively share their goals, experience, and values through open communication, positioning themselves as transparent and accountable to support buyer trust.
3. Highlight Buyer Testimonials: Feature testimonials from satisfied buyers, addressing common concerns and reinforcing trust through real-life success stories.

This disproportionate coverage not only harms the image of diligent and reputable developers but also erodes buyer confidence in the new property market. In a recent survey conducted by Urban.com.au, prospective buyers expressed the key pain point before being ready to make a purchasing decisions. The top concerns were a lack of trust in developer/builder and doubts about whether off-the-plan residences would match the final product.

While these concerns are valid, at Urban.com.au, we believe it’s our responsibility to help reputable developers stand apart from the rest. We are committed to championing transparency and accountability within the industry.

A Strategy for Differentiation

Our approach begins with empowering project teams to clearly communicate their vision and expertise. By fostering open communication, we encourage developers to take ownership of their work, distancing themselves from the missteps of others. This narrative shift is crucial for rebuilding buyer trust.

Organisation Profiles on Urban.com.au for Architects, Developers, Builders, Interior Designers, Landscape Architects and Project Marketers.

We help humanise the teams behind the developments. Through interviews and news, we aim to showcase the values and expertise of the people responsible for bringing these projects to life. By allowing development teams to share their stories, we foster a connection between the project team and buyers that transcends the generalised negative media headlines.

Social proof, through buyer testimonials, is key to building trust. We work with project marketers to understand buyer hesitations and feature testimonials from buyers who initially shared these concerns but ultimately found satisfaction with their purchases. These stories highlight the positive experiences of real buyers who overcame any doubts that were previously between them and their new property.

While the challenges facing the property development industry are significant, they should not overshadow the hard work and dedication of reputable developers. At Urban.com.au, we’re committed to fostering an environment of trust and transparency, ensuring buyers can make informed decisions without the cloud of sensationalism. Together, we can pave the way for a stronger, more trustworthy new property market.

Request more details on how Urban can support in sharing your teams story
Urban Communities
Jake Taylor

Similar articles

Join over 3,000 actively marketed developments

Speak to the team about leveraging the Urban audiences and services for your new development.

Hear from our happy clients

“We're seeing Urban outperform other portals by five to one in a week and it's just incredible. It's great when you get a volume of leads and they're qualified.”

Greg Billings

Director of Residential Projects

Lead follow-up with the selling agents is easy, and the communication between Urban and the agents directly when there's a lead that comes through is fantastic. There's alerts via text, email, through our CRMs so they can't be missed.”

Sonia Fava

Director

”In the last couple of years, Urban has become one of our cornerstone real estate portals in our advisory piece to our developers. What sets Urban apart from other options is quality of the content that's delivered around our project really helps to educate a purchaser.”

Nick Clydsdale

Senior Director

“The flexibility in the campaigns has allowed us to cater to a broad range of different projects that we work on, whether it be the luxury boutique-style downsizer product or the larger scale projects that may have a higher investor or first home buyer component"

Heath Thompson

Director

“Not only the quality of leads that's coming through from them. We're also getting a lot of unique leads from Urban as well, people that are might often be actively in the market through really good content and articles put out by the team.”

Todd Matheson

Director

“They've been able to create a portal and a system that responds the needs that we're having in the industry, and we're finding with projects that we're working with [Urban] on now, the lead quality is infinitely better than what it used to be."

Fil Gacesa

Director

Pontem
“Urban provide constant support. There's always support available from the account manager and the team, and especially from the research teams as well.”

Thomas Panson

Project Sales & Marketing Agent

“The data and the content [Urban] pushes out I think's been really strong and just watching [Urban] over that time, there's been continual improvement.”

Scott Jessop

Head of Sales & Marketing

“The inquiries that we're getting and the leads that we're getting, I can say hand on heart, are transacting a lot sooner than the other inquiry portals that we're getting inquiries from. The quality of the leads that are coming through are a lot better than what people been receiving."

Alex Adams

Head of Sales & Marketing and
Head of New Business