The spring property selling season just got a little hotter with the entry of a new print product to take on News Corp’s dominant position in the market.
Fairfax Media group’s property division Domain has released a weekly “Domain Adelaide” publication, targeting property buyers in Adelaide’s beachside and inner city suburbs.
The first edition was distributed to 70,000 households last week.
Last month InDaily revealed that the Domain had offered local agents the chance to take a share in a new online real estate listings site. The take-up has already exceeded 25 per cent of the entire SA market.
It was the first shot in a real estate advertising turf war in Adelaide as local agents bristle at a surge in charges by market leader realestate.com.au (REA).
The News Corp majority-owned website dominates the South Australian market, but now faces a serious challenge from Domain which has offered agents part-ownership of a new online portal.
The launch of a print publication broadens the front line.
“We are really excited to see Domain Adelaide in print,” Tony Blamey, Chief Operating Officer for Domain, said today.
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“We listened to what agents have told us and have provided a great way to showcase their properties throughout the spring selling season.
“Our agents came to us asking for a high quality publication with large format display ads to showcase their properties midweek, which will help them get their properties in front of buyers ahead of time for auctions and property inspections on the weekend.”
The publication, described as a “pop up”, appears to be a test run limited to 10 weeks.
“Each Wednesday for 10 weeks the pop up will be delivered free to homes and also inserted into The Australian Financial Review,” Domain’s media release stated.
“The next edition will grow substantially to 36 pages and we expect it to grow even more as we move into the peak of the spring selling season.
“We have invested heavily in our digital capability around Australia and this print pop up is a first for us in Adelaide.
“We wanted to provide a competitive value for money product that complements our online offering.”
If the publication’s advertisers are a guide, then it appears that most large real estate firms in Adelaide are on board.
All the main players have ads in the new Domain Adelaide – Toop & Toop, Harcourts, Ray White, Harris and more.
Blamey told InDaily today the take-up of equity in the online portal had been “above expectations”.
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“We’re very pleased with the interest so far,” he said.
“We’ve got around 150 agent offices on board to date; that’s about a quarter of the entire SA market, so it’s a very good start.
“The model is to create a new entity which will share in the revenue generated by online advertising.
“At the moment we’ll run the ads on the national domain website, but we’re also examining the other brands we have in our portfolio such as the allhomes.com.au brand in Canberra and a separate one in Melbourne.
“We’re also pushing out a new app called propertymatch, so there’s a lot going on in the market.”
Harris Real Estate’s Greg Moulton warned last month the shape of the local market had changed.
“There’s been a monopoly for far too long and when realestate.com.au whacked up their prices it was just too much,” he said.
“Competition in this market is needed, it’s inevitable and I think the number of agents that are interested in this deal has got to a stage where it’s ready to go.
“REA will still be around in the market; they have a kind of arrogant confidence and they’ll back themselves.”
Moulton believes the arrival of an agent part-owned portal is long overdue.
“Mate, it goes back years when we as an industry stuffed up by not keeping control of our own data.
“This time I think we are more united and will take back what we should never have let go.”
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