Location note: this is tagged Sydney, Australia, but my property search was for a studio around Porto, Portugal. Idealista gave me useful search coverage, yet duplicate listings, stale availability and inconsistent floor-area data made comparison harder than expected. The closing-cost information was the most valuable feature for me. The biggest gaps were clear listing-freshness signals and an obvious next step after finding a property. How does that compare with the mobile experience and what happens after contacting an advertiser?
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Idealista for a Porto studio: useful coverage, difficult comparisons
- Thread starter grain.brisk
- Start date
paintsAndHearth
Property investor
Freshness sounds like the central problem. A large result count is not particularly useful if the same studio appears several times or remains visible after its status changes. Were your duplicates exact copies from one advertiser, or separate agencies using the same photos? That distinction matters because the portal could potentially group the former, while the latter may have conflicting price and area details.
What changed my view was seeing apparently repeated studios with different area figures or terms. Grouping them as duplicates sounds helpful, but it could hide genuine differences between advertisements from separate agencies.
Before comparing prices, I would check whether each area is labelled as usable, gross or another measurement. If the portal does not define that field, two Porto studios shown with the same size may not be comparable at all. Duplicate grouping would clean up the results page, but it would not solve unreliable source information.
Before comparing prices, I would check whether each area is labelled as usable, gross or another measurement. If the portal does not define that field, two Porto studios shown with the same size may not be comparable at all. Duplicate grouping would clean up the results page, but it would not solve unreliable source information.
On mobile, map-pin accuracy and filters would be my next tests. Does the pin indicate the actual building or only an approximate area? Also, do selected filters remain applied when moving between the map, results and saved searches? A saved-search alert is frustrating if opening it produces properties outside the original area or size criteria.
Thinking about it, I wouldn’t expect exact pins for every occupied property, so there is a privacy trade-off. Approximate pins are acceptable if they are visibly marked as approximate. The real issue is when the interface implies precision that the listing does not support.
avery_fable
Homeowner
The closing-cost information is helpful for early budgeting, but it cannot solve the unclear hand-off you mentioned. After contact, I’d want the advertiser response to confirm availability, the floor-area basis, precise location and whether the advertised price has changed. Keeping those four questions in the first message could quickly expose stale or inconsistent listings.
drawTheGate
Property investor
I disagree slightly that the next transaction step is necessarily the portal’s biggest missing piece. A marketplace can make contact clear without becoming a transaction service. Price history and links to relevant sold records, where such information is legitimately available, might do more for the buyer’s decision before contact. The portal should at least distinguish listing data from independently verified transaction data.
ames_rents
Homeowner
A practical approach would be to shortlist by saved search, then keep a separate comparison table with the listing URL, advertiser, asking price, stated area and area definition. Note the alert date and the date availability was confirmed. That will reveal duplicates and stale entries even when the portal does not. For mobile testing, also check whether map position, filters and shortlist status survive reopening the app or browser.