According to the survey, 52% of first-time buyers browse properties on social media at least once a week as a form of “digital window shopping”, with the figure rising to 58% among those aged 25 to 34.
Three in four respondents (75%) said seeing peers or influencers celebrate buying a home triggered feelings of envy. Despite this, the survey found that such posts often prompt buyers to take action: 46% said they logged onto property apps immediately after seeing someone else’s “We Got the Keys” post on social media.
Half of all respondents said they used social media as a prompt to look up the price of a property they had seen on their feed. Women were more likely than men to do so regularly, with 19% saying they always checked a property’s value after seeing it online, compared with 14% of men.
The survey also found that 47% of buyers regularly recalculated their mortgage affordability in response to economic news, while 78% admitted to comparing their own budget with the “perfect” homes shown on social media.
Kayleigh Jackson, mortgage sales manager at Mojo Mortgages, said the platforms could distort buyers’ sense of what is realistic. “Social media is a fantastic tool for inspiration, design ideas, and celebrating major life milestones,” she said. “However, it creates a highly curated gallery that rarely reflects the compromise, grit, and financial realities it takes to get onto the property ladder.