Some thoughts of things I'd be interested to see from such a site, though I don't know how possible they are from a business perspective.
- Searchable - narrow down listings to postcode area, proximity to amenities, price, no. of bedrooms etc.
- Being able to request viewings online, book them or see available slots for viewing.
- Recommendations? Maybe a bit useless and impractical, but what about 'people who viewed this property, also viewed....'. Or just a list of similar properties to the one I'm currently viewing.
- Customisable RSS feeds of property searches, so I can get a continuous list of all properties I might be interested in from my newreader.
In summary, the site could benefit from being dynamic and functional - no need to go feature-crazy, but should be able to be constantly updated and not just a site with contact details and company blurb. It may well already be, of course. Look at a site like
Foxtons for ideas.
As others have said, without seeing the site or the sites of competitors it's impossible to suggest whether it needs a facelift, usability could be improved or any optimisations could take place.
You might also want to take a look at the quality of current designs to see if the site could do with a visual update:
If you like designs you see, show the designer and say 'I like this part of this site', 'I think this is a really smart design' etc.
I'm not sure if you're technically minded (in terms of web dev), but you would be wise to ensure your website is accessible to all kinds of visitors - disabled users, visually-impaired users, mobile-phone users, search engines and so on. This means meeting accessibility guidelines (WCAG), being well coded (tableless markup and CSS), and well written (targeting relevant keywords for incoming searches e.g. 'flats for rent in x', 'estate agent in x').
