iProperty UK review

Damien McFerran

We review iProperty UK, a property search tool

Published on Sep 4, 2009

Buying a house is probably the single biggest purchasing decision you’ll ever have to make so it’s vital that you have as much salient information at your fingertips as possible when hunting for that perfect pad.

While the advent of the internet has resulted in an explosion of estate agent websites granting quick and easy access to up-to-date lists of available homesteads, iProperty UK attempts to go one better by shoehorning all of that lovely housing market data into one intuitive iPhone application.

The app itself makes use of information provided by the UK’s premier property data source Nestoria, which essentially means it’s an astonishingly accurate and reliable tool for those looking to buy, rent or share a home.

Getting to grips with iProperty UK is simplicity itself – even though the app’s interface is surprisingly deep and feature-packed. The first time you run the program, tapping on a menu item will open a Help screen which briefly explains what each option does. It’s incredibly useful and all but removes that feeling of trepidation that many of us get when we’re attempting to blindly feel our way around a new piece of software.

You can search for houses by typing in a location (or post code) or by using the iPhone’s ability to pinpoint your exact position; the latter option allows you to assign a search radius (anything from 1 to 20 miles) around your current location.

In addition to this, you can focus your query by specifying the number of bedrooms, whether you wish to buy, rent or share and finally the minimum and maximum price.

The final aspect of the search allows you to select keywords to narrow down the data selection even further. For example, if you’re keen for the property to possess a garage, you can add this as a keyword and the resultant search will only offer up homes that fit this criteria.

Once you’re happy that you’ve covered all the bases you can initiate the actual search, with the results being displayed on a separate screen. You can toggle between the search information display and the results display at will, which makes it easy to modify your search terms..

Vital information – such as the address, value and number of bedrooms – is all present and correct, and you’re also able to view a small photo, pinpoint the exact location using Google Maps and even save the house in question so you can consult it at a later date.

It all works surprisingly effectively and to be honest we can find little fault with the way the application pulls together all this critical data. Obviously it’s rather at the mercy of Nestoria when it comes to complete accuracy but we found few reasons to complain during our time with the app.

At £2.99 iProperty UK certainly doesn’t come cheap and many would argue that surfing the web or purchasing a local newspaper are more effective ways of sizing up a potential house purchase, but even the most stubborn traditionalist would have to admit this app makes the arduous task of locating a new nest a damn sight easier.