More and more people are using the internet to find a home, according to a new survey.

Nearly two million people logged onto the web to search for a new home, in the three months between April and June 2002 - and half a million of those people from work.

Visitors to property sites have surged this year, according to a report from internet market researchers Nielsen/NetRatings.

Top 6 most popular sites*

Rightmove.co.uk: 865,164 Assertahome.com: 556,408 Primelocation.com: 488,022 Propertyfinder.co.uk: 467,941 Vebra.com: 390,798 Your-move.co.uk: 383,599 Source: Nielsen//NetRatings UK at home & at work panels, April- June 2002

Most of those using the web to find their dream home are young people, between 25 and 34 years old.

Time-saving

Tom Ewing, an analyst at Nielsen//NetRatings, said that the main benefit of using the internet was to save time.

Mr Ewing said: "Searching for a home can be a time-consuming effort, with shoppers needing to block out days and weeks to travel around to visit new areas and houses,"

"Looking for a home online allows shoppers to visit scores of properties virtually in a fraction of the time, making the web an attractive solution for more and more people in Britain today."

Popular sites

According to Nielsen's ratings system, the most popular site in the UK is currently Rightmove.co.uk, which had 865,164 individual users in the three months between April and June 2002.

Assertahome.com was second with 556,408 users.

However, visitors to this site spent the most time browsing - on average 33 minutes each session.

Primelocation.com, ukpropertyshop.co.uk, homes-on-line.com and homesonview.co.uk have made significant gains in audience in the last few months to achieve at least 200,000 unique visitors in the last quarter, Nielsen NetRatings said.