7 Elements of Modern Commercial Real Estate Websites

Commercial real estate companies today know they need to have an online presence to promote their listings.

With an easy-to-find, easy-to-use property websites you can expand your visibility, increase engagement with visitors and convert them into prospects along the way.

Remember, though, that all of this only works if your CRE website has all of the modern touches that users expect. A digital presence won’t do you any favors if it’s outdated or hard to navigate. It only takes roughly 50 milliseconds for users to make an opinion about your website and decide if they’ll stay on it. That means you need an optimized CRE website that follows the modern trends — and meets today’s tech-savvy user’s expectations — for usability and design.

So what, exactly, is a modern website? It’s one that carefully blends an aesthetically pleasing design with easy usability.

Specifically, it should contain these seven elements.

1. Minimalist & clean layout

Minimalism’s focus is on simple and functional design by removing any unnecessary elements that distract the user and allow the content to stand out.

Not only does this refer to design elements, but website copy is also reduced and consolidated to help focus users’ attention to important calls-to-action and drive them to conversion, like in the 501 Boylston website example.

501 Boylston website

2. Clear navigation

A clear navigation with reduced menu options is meant to help visitors keep their attention on the most important elements on the website and reduce distractions.

By keeping navigation to a minimum the users can focus on the content offered such as the building information, location and amenities, instead of clicking out and abandoning the page.

Hamburger menus and unique navigation options are prevalent as mobile navigation and wide aspect ratios on screens are becoming a norm, like seen on The Essex website example.

The Essex website

3. Strong accent colors

You can easily take advantage of color on your commercial property website to get attention and make a strong impact. Make sure you choose a color scheme that matches your brand colors or the branding created for that property. See the bold green used on the 1101 Vermont Avenue website example

1101 Vermont Avenue website

4. Bold typography

A modern and bold typography can help support marketing messaging and design. It emphasizes the property’s brand name and makes the main value propositions stand out to provide a lasting impression.

Many web designs today will use the entire top fold of a website with for one message that will allow the text to be the initial focus and provide context for first time visitors.

Choosing a unique font makes your listing stand out and differentiate from the competitors such as the East United Condos below.

5. Professional imagery

Full-width images and the use of professional photography play an important role in interface design for CRE websites, especially for hero images to help demand attention of prospective clients.

Good quality photos, as used on Highwoods’ Bank of America Tower, can give you an edge and make a big difference in how quickly it takes to capture initial interest for selling or leasing your property.

Bank of America Tower website

6. Custom interactive maps

Nowadays every website visitor is used to seeing maps and pins to locate businesses, properties and amenities around it.

And since it’s all about location in real estate, an interactive map is a key decision driver for any potential tenant or investor evaluating commercial property.

An attractively designed map can contribute extensively to a unique and memorable user experience.

7. Device consistency

Nearly half of the worldwide web traffic comes from mobile devices, so a key to a modern commercial real estate website is creating a clean and user-friendly website that’s easy to navigate on both mobile and desktop.

Always make sure to keep your user’s experience consistent regardless of the type of device.