Why Smart Developers Think Differently About Today’s Buyer.

Author | Paul Skuse, Oakfield Marketing

When you work in property long enough, you think you know who all the major players are.

Before we sat down to talk, Iain Powis, Head of New Homes for Bidwells Oxfordshire, showed me a new internal corporate film Bidwells are beginning to share more widely. It ends with a line:

“So you think you know property… but do you know Bidwells?”

It’s a powerful statement because most people do think they know Bidwells. They know the name, the heritage, the scale. But what the film highlights and what the conversation that followed made incredibly clear, is that very few people really understand the depth, the capability, or the strategic mindset behind the brand.

What follows is our conversation. A frank, peer-to-peer look at the market, the buyer, the mistakes developers keep repeating, and the realities of selling new homes in 2025, 2026 and beyond.

Paul:
The Bidwells video is bold. It makes you stop and reconsider what the brand actually is versus what the industry assumes. From your perspective, what sets Bidwells apart?

Iain:
What sets us apart is the combination of deep sector expertise and genuine longevity. We’re not trying to be all things to all people, we’re exceptional in the areas where we operate, and we’ve built decades of trust doing it. We’ve been part of major growth corridors — Cambridge, Oxford, the Arc — long before they became buzzwords. And because of that, we understand the nuance others overlook: infrastructure triggers, land values, political drivers, and the behavioural DNA of local buyers.

The video captures that well. It shows that we’re not a surface-level sales agency. We’re embedded economically, geographically, strategically. And because of that, our advice is grounded in lived understanding, not guesswork.

Paul:
You’re setting up the Oxfordshire office for new homes from scratch. What are you seeing in the market right now that developers really need to hear?

Iain:
Developers underestimate how intelligent buyers have become. Buyers now arrive with data in hand. EPC comparisons, square-footage benchmarks, school catchment stats, planning histories, even price-per-street analysis. The old “brochure and a smile” approach doesn’t cut it anymore.

Developers need to solve three things simultaneously:

Emotional connection
Logical justification
Trust barrier removal

If any one of those is weak, the sale collapses.

And of course, timing. Buyers don’t transact because you’ve launched. They transact when your home fits their emotional and financial window. Bidwells’ job is synchronising that timing by knowing exactly where the buyer is in their decision journey.

Paul:
Developers still talk about “waiting for the spring market” as if we’re in 2005. What’s your take?

Iain:
Seasonality is dead, algorithms replaced it.

The market now moves on:

• confidence
• mortgage products
• political announcements
• micro-local desirability
• and the velocity of digital engagement

Developers who still plan launches around the old seasonal model lose months of momentum.

We look at engagement data across all Bidwells’ digital channels daily, when people click, what they return to, where enquiries spike, and build our sales flow around behaviour rather than tradition. That’s where the results are.

Paul:
When we work with most developers at Oakfield, we see a constant blind spot: they don’t know their numbers. Website traffic, search rankings, enquiry flow, conversion ratios… all invisible to them. Do you see the same?

Iain:
Every day.
Developers know their build costs down to the penny, but can’t tell you their cost per enquiry or why certain plots outperform others.

Bidwells track:

• buyer heat maps
• repeat-view metrics
• time-to-enquiry ratios
• content engagement
• tendered interest level by demographic
• and enquiry attribution pathways

Without that, you can’t optimise. With it, you know exactly where to place your energy and where you’re leaking sales.

Paul:
What’s the most misunderstood part of selling new homes right now?

Iain:
That the buyer journey is no longer linear.
They don’t go:
Rightmove → Viewing → Decision
They go:
Social → Search → Content → Compare → Enquire → Return → Validate → View → Decide

Agents who don’t create frictionless re-entry points, quality content, strong digital follow-up, narrative-driven email flows, lose them at step three.

This is where working with strategic partners like Oakfield makes the difference. Developers need a joined-up approach that follows the buyer wherever they go, not just whoever answers the phone on the day.

Paul:
If you could give developers one piece of advice right now, what would it be?

Iain:
Stop selling the house.
Sell the life that happens in the house.

That’s what moves buyers today:

• how the kitchen actually works
• how the light falls
• how life flow through the home
• the reality of the commute, not the brochure version
• the weekend, not the weekday

When developers understand that and design and market for it, sale velocity increases dramatically.

Paul:
And from Bidwells’ standpoint, what’s the biggest advantage a developer gets from partnering with you?

Iain:
Authenticity and intelligence. We don’t just list, we think, we advise and we bring decades of Oxfordshire and regional understanding that no newcomer can replicate.

We’re not trying to be the loudest agency. We’re trying to be the smartest ally.

And developers feel that immediately when they work with us.

Paul:
Before we wrap up, sustainability feels like one of the biggest shifts happening across residential development. Every developer knows it matters, but very few a showing how best to approach it strategically. Where does sustainability sit in your work at Bidwells?

Iain:
For us, sustainability isn’t a bolt-on or a regulatory tick-box, it’s becoming one of the biggest competitive advantages a developer can have.

Buyers care. Planners care. Lenders care. And increasingly, future value cares. A home that performs better, thermally, environmentally, economically, simply has more long-term resilience in the market.

Where Bidwells really stand apart is how early we bring that conversation into the process. We treat sustainability the same way we treat design, pricing, or buyer behaviour: it’s a strategic decision, not a compliance exercise.

We look at everything from low-carbon build strategies, renewable energy integration, EV charging infrastructure, smart-home systems, biodiversity net gain, the lot, but all through a commercial lens. Not “what’s the greenest thing we can do?”, but “what creates long-term desirability, aligns with planning, and increases the value narrative for the buyer?”

Because here’s the truth:
Sustainability that feels like a burden doesn’t work. Sustainability that feels like a benefit does.

That’s where Bidwells brings real intelligence. We’re deeply embedded in science and technology sectors, so we understand the innovations coming downstream long before they hit the mainstream. That allows us to help developers future-proof schemes, rather than just comply with the present.

Paul:
A lot of developers see sustainability as something that adds cost but not always value. How do you shift that mindset?

Iain:
By showing them the numbers and showing them the buyer.

Energy efficiency isn’t ideology, it’s logic. A home that costs less to run is easier to sell. A home that performs to EPC A reduces fall-throughs. A home built with a smart layout, good fabric efficiency, and intelligent heating systems gets chosen faster.

And that’s before you even get into things like biodiversity enhancements or circular-economy thinking, which planners increasingly reward and communities love.

There’s also a brand position at stake. Developments that visibly care about sustainability differentiate themselves instantly, especially in competitive markets. Certification routes like BREEAM, Passivhaus, or simply best-in-class energy modelling give buyers confidence and give developers a narrative that drives demand.

We help developers frame that narrative properly, not as an obligation, but as part of the lifestyle and long-term value the home provides.

Paul:
So as far as you’re concerned, sustainability isn’t the future, it’s now?

Iain:
Exactly. And developers who treat it as future-prep rather than future-cost will outperform the rest.

Bidwells’ role is to help them integrate it intelligently into planning, into design, into marketing, and into the lived experience of the home itself. We want our clients building homes that are desirable today and resilient tomorrow.

That’s the goal. Homes that stand the test of time, economically, environmentally, and emotionally.

Why Conversations Like This Matter

Speaking with Iain reinforces something the industry is struggling to catch up with.

Today’s buyers are more informed, more analytical, and more emotionally driven than ever before and agencies need to meet them at that level.

Bidwells do that exceptionally well. Their combination of:

• deep regional intelligence
• data-led decision-making
• behavioural understanding
• and a genuinely consultative mindset

…makes them one of the most strategically aligned agency partners a developer could work with.

And the takeaway is simple:

If you’re not thinking about your strategy you’re leaving sales on the table.

The video can be found on the Bidwells home page: https://www.bidwells.co.uk/

Iain can be contacted direct at:
https://www.bidwells.co.uk/people/iain-powis/