The Real estate agents edition
The AI news of that week, in plain language.
Two thirds of house hunters now start with AI, and most estate agents are invisible there. This week: how to stay visible, and how to use AI honestly.
67% of house hunters start with AI. And 91% of estate agents are invisible there
The search is shifting from a shop window that clients browse to a database that AI checks on the client's behalf.
Figures circulating in the proptech sector at the end of July show that 67% of house hunters now begin their search with a generative AI tool. At the same time, 91% of estate agents do not appear at all in the answers those tools give. The reason: AI assistants read structured data, not lovely photos or well-written texts. That is why Zillow linked its listings to Google Gemini, after an earlier link with ChatGPT.
Background for subscribersThis week, check a few of your active listings on the hard fields: property type, floor area, price, number of rooms, energy label. That is what an AI tool reads. A beautiful funda text still matters for the person who eventually looks, but the AI that filters first mainly sees your structured data. Fill it in fully and correctly, and you will not end up in the 91% that stays invisible.
The AI Act is now being enforced: AI images and chatbots must be recognisable
Since 2 August 2026 the transparency rules of the EU AI Act apply. A chatbot must reveal that it is AI, and AI-made media must be marked in a machine-readable way. For you this mainly affects your AI photos: a virtually furnished home or an AI impression must be made recognisable. Fines run up to 15 million euros or 3% of worldwide annual turnover.
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