A property listing headline is not there to summarise the property, it is there to give the reason to click. The results page already shows the price, the bedroom count and the area: repeating them in the headline spends your only line of free text on information the reader can already see. A good headline names what this particular property has that the others do not, and nothing else.
The short version
- The headline is the only line of free text visible in a results page.
- Repeating price, size and area there is dead weight.
- The test: if the headline would still be true for the flat next door, it isn't a headline.
- One concrete reason beats three adjectives.
What the results page already shows
Open any portal. Around your headline, the reader already sees the price, the floor area, the bedroom count, the area and usually the energy rating. All of it structured, filterable, and displayed whether you like it or not.
So writing "Two-bedroom apartment, 74 m², Rathmines" restates out loud what is already printed underneath. The headline is spent, and the reader still has no particular reason to click this one rather than the eleven others.
What the headline can do instead
It can name the reason this property is worth a click:
- a private south-facing garden in an area where almost nothing has one;
- a first-floor flat with no stairs up to a shared hall, for anyone tired of climbing;
- insulation done last year, in a market where everyone is doing sums about heating;
- an open view that will not be built on.
These have one thing in common: they are verifiable and discriminating. They survive comparison with the property next door.
If the headline would still be true for the flat next door, it isn't a headline. It's a label.
The one-sentence test
Take your headline and mentally swap the property for another on the same street, at comparable size and price. If the sentence still holds, the headline is not working.
| Headline | Holds for the neighbour? | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Two-bedroom apartment, 74 m², Rathmines | Yes | Rewrite |
| Charming bright two-bed close to amenities | Yes | Rewrite |
| Two-bed with a private south-facing garden, not overlooked | No | Good headline |
Two recurring mistakes
Adjectives standing in for data. "Bright" is an opinion; "dual aspect, east and west" is a fact that creates the same impression and can be checked on site.
The polite opening. "Come and discover this charming…" burns the first characters — precisely the ones that stay visible when the headline is truncated on mobile.
Going further
The headline is only the first of a listing's four blocks. The full method is in the complete guide to writing property listings, and the time each block consumes is broken down in how long it takes to write a listing.
To see what a headline generated from a viewing voice note looks like, book a 10-minute call.