That Home Loan Hub
Welcome to That Home Loan Hub, your ultimate guide to mastering the world of home loans and property. I'm Zebunisso Alimova, here to simplify the complexities of real estate and provide you with expert insights and the latest trends.
Whether you're a first-time homebuyer, an experienced investor, or simply curious about the property market, this podcast is for you. Join me each week as we unlock the secrets to property success and help you make informed decisions. Let's dive into the world of property together!
That Home Loan Hub
The Top Property Searches Reveal What People Want
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The search bar is brutally honest, and the latest realestate.co.nz keyword data gives a real-time snapshot of what New Zealand buyers are chasing. We pull apart the most searched terms and talk about what they mean for anyone selling, buying, or simply watching the Kapiti Coast market. If you’ve ever wondered why some listings get all the clicks while others sit quietly, the answer is often hidden in a few simple words buyers type at 11 pm.
We chat about Otaki rising as a standout search and what that suggests about downsizing, retirees, and families hunting for value beyond the usual hotspots. From there we get into “development” as a surprisingly popular keyword, and what it could signal about buyer appetite for townhouses, subdividable sites, and properties with add-value potential. It’s a useful reminder that strong real estate marketing isn’t just pretty photos; it’s matching the listing language to real buyer intent.
Then the fun part: lifestyle searches like “fruit garden” and even ultra-specific phrases about sheltered orchards and fruit trees. We connect that to a wider trend toward self-sufficiency, food growing, and comfort features when the world feels unpredictable and the cost of living keeps climbing. We also cover practical must-haves like brick and tile, wheelchair accessible homes, and single level layouts, showing how “future-proofing” is shaping decisions earlier than many people expect.
If you’re planning a sale or rewriting your listing, take these keyword trends as a checklist. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s house-hunting, and leave us a review, then tell us: what’s the first keyword you type when you start a property search?
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4 November
First Home Buyers Free Webinar: Your Last Chance to Get Home-Ready in 2026 https://events.humanitix.com/firsthomebuyer2026
17 November
Investing in Your Future: How to Buy an Investment Property https://events.humanitix.com/investmentproperty2026
Why Keywords Still Matter
SPEAKER_01We're gonna talk about keywords and searches. Megan. Hello. Hello. Real estate has released some keywords that normally people search for, right? Yes.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01Quick disclaimer people usually now use ChatGPT or Claude to do a bit of research for them. But these are the keywords that they would have used on the website.
SPEAKER_00Yes, it's quite interesting because realestate.co.nz is one of the biggest platforms apart from trade me. And we like to track what the keywords are because when we're writing ads, I mean sometimes we use a bit of AI assistance to write ads, but you know, the human touch and making sure those keywords always are in there. If they're honest and truthful, like ocean views, you're gonna actually have an ocean view. Um we just want to make sure that we are doing everything humanly possible to make sure that these ads for our clients are being looked at. But we understand that most people would use a price search or number of bedroom search or other things that would be important, like maybe garage. But yeah, when we're writing the ads, we have a look at these.
Otaki Interest And Downsizing Patterns
SPEAKER_00So one of the most searched words for last month, and we're in October now, so that would have been September, was Otaki. Isn't that interesting? I don't actually sell houses in Otaki, so go for it. Go up there. Yeah, it's quite interesting. Otaki is part of Carpany and and their team is part of our team as well. Um so yeah, we are noticing a trend sometimes with people who are downsizing. They'll downsize here and then they'll downsize further up in Otaki. So possibly some downsizers have been searching this website. So you reckon Otaki is the place to be? Yeah, it can be for retirees. It's getting a little bit more popular.
SPEAKER_01I think it's getting popular with families as well.
SPEAKER_00There's a lot of value to be had up there. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Parents running around kicking a ball.
SPEAKER_00I just I don't sell up there. So, you know, I'm like, is it does it exist? I don't know. Yeah, so no, lots of people are moving to OTECI. The
Development Searches And Townhouse Reality
SPEAKER_00other most key searched keyword was development, which I was actually really surprised about.
SPEAKER_01Interesting. So do you think it's people that want to buy a development?
SPEAKER_00Or is it people looking to develop, possibly? Yeah. We don't deal with a whole lot of developers in the last sort of three or so years. It's any kind of development has usually been mum or dad type developers. But then there's a lot of development going on around Carpenter as well, with people building townhouses and people have opinions on whether they're pro-townhouses or not, but they certainly people people live in them. So
Fruit Gardens And Self-Sufficient Living
SPEAKER_00the other ones are quite cute. Fruit garden. Fruit garden. Fruit garden, not like veggie garden, which is you what you would normally expect. Fruit specifically.
SPEAKER_01Interesting. You know, every house I bought, we always planted trees. Yeah. And looking back, I'm like, man, the amount of you know money we spent on those trees. Yeah. And it takes years for them to develop. Yeah. So yeah, that kind of makes sense. You know, you want to buy something that already has a beautiful developed fruit tree.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, I've just planted Fiji's about two years ago. I've got about three Fiji's of my little trees. One of them hasn't even fruited yet, but fruit garden sounds quite nice. Fruit garden. Okay. All right.
Waikanae, Brick And Tile, Future-Proofing
SPEAKER_00The other one was Why Canai. No surprise to you, I'm sure. And very varying ways of spelling Why can I? One person put in Well Canny.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but I mean you can look at it and go, oh, they probably mean why can I? Yeah, so Waikani is still a booming suburb. And yeah, people want to move here.
SPEAKER_01Yep. Another place to be.
SPEAKER_00Yep, definitely. And what else is there? Yeah, we've got brick and tile, which in previous times that I've looked at this, brick and tile has been higher on the search criteria. So it is if you've got a brick and tile, call me. I want to sell it for you. It's a really popular cladding.
SPEAKER_01I love those because I always say to my clients, if it's brick and tile, go for it.
SPEAKER_00Yep, absolutely. I was talking to some of my friends the other day. They've just got their pre-approval. Thank you very much. And they were saying, Oh, I've just been to this brick and tile house, but it's really dated inside. And I said, I don't even need to see the files, just buy it. This was my friendship advice disclaimer. I did not say this as an agent. It wasn't my listing. But I said, you know, brick and tile. You can't go wrong. You can't really go wrong. You know you're going to replace the carpets and paint and stuff, but it's it's one of the most popular claddings at time of resale as well. Yeah. So it just holds value. Other, other the next one was quite surprising. Wheelchair. So they must mean like wheelchair accessible properties. Yeah. And the one after that was single level. So maybe they go hand in hand. We're dealing with a lot of people who are trying to talk about future proofing at the moment. People even in their 50s are thinking about the concept of a forever home and like wanting single level and thinking I'd like to stay here for 30 years. So maybe there's been like more people who were thinking about wheelchair accessibility and putting that into searches. So if we have wheelchair accessible properties, we need to make sure that we put that into the keywords. The one after that was Raumassy. No surprise. Again, really popular suburb. They haven't specified beach or south or whatever. They just put in Raumassy. And then we've got private sheltered. Private sheltered orchard fruit tree. And that was the second to least popular search. But four people have searched this, and I'm just wondering, was it the same buyer each time? And did they type this each time? Private sheltered orchard fruit tree. Wow. So that fruit tree concept seems to be coming back. It was interesting because we went to a seminar that was put on by Trade Me a few months back, and they said with all the uncertainty internationally and the elections and everything, people will be hunkering down and going for like homely things that are self-sufficient, like solar panels, wood burners, food growing. And it's interesting to see two references to that in the keyword searches.
SPEAKER_01I was actually gonna say that as well. And look, I didn't go to that conference or anything, but I feel the same. I feel like a lot of clients I'm dealing with, and it was bizarre because over the last months I suddenly had inquiries around rural land. Yeah. You know, everyone wants to be self-sufficient, everyone wants to grow their own things, and I think it's purely cost of living is going up. Yes, it is. So people are finding ways of how they can save money and still have a nutritionally balanced diet and be self-sufficient. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's kind of like COVID, like everyone started making bread. Like, when was the last time you made bread? For me, it's been quite a while, but I was making bread, I was making scones, and I was growing stuff in my garden. And like I think I think we tend to do that as humans when the world feels a bit scary or unpredictable. We just kind of hunker down at home and and do these things that make us feel good. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well that's I like the idea of a fruit orchard. The last one was single level but without a capital S. So it's very important to some people to have single level. And people have I love this report. It's beautiful. It's got a capital S for single level, which is the more popular search or the lowercase S. You're killing me.
SPEAKER_01You're absolutely killing me, Megan.
SPEAKER_00Sorry.
SPEAKER_01I love it.
SPEAKER_00So that's our list. Ten
Using Search Data To Sell Smarter
SPEAKER_00most searched words.
SPEAKER_01But that's fascinating, I guess, for people to know that we look at these things, right? You look at this thing. So when you are going to talk to the vendors, you you're well informed. You know how to build a whole campaign around purchase, they're selling, etc. So for those that are listening, looking to sell the house soon, ask ask your real estate agent.
SPEAKER_00What are the top 10 searched words? I mean, we've had C Views before, that's not on the list. We've had Garage, which is not on the list. We've had Sparple, which is not on the list at the moment. So it changes from month to month what people care about and what people look for.
SPEAKER_01Beautiful.
SPEAKER_00Thank you so much, Megan. Thank you. See you next time.