According to a press release, the portal operator aims to achieve A$12 million in annual revenue by 2026, thanks to its unique approach to the market.

Sidespace's distinguished backers include Patrick Grove, founder of Catcha Group, and Gilles Blanchard, co-founder of France's leading real estate portal, Seloger. Mathew Care, CEO of Digital Classifieds Group, and Chad Stephens, co-founder of innovative tech firms 1Form and Fillr, are also part of the investment mix.

Sidespace is seeking to bring a fresh perspective to the commercial real estate market through its success-fee-based business model. Founder and CEO Simon Hanlon emphasized their unique selling point, saying, "Rather than clients deploying up-front advertising spend, we absorb all the risk and clients only pay when a lease or sale is achieved."

The company's approach has already facilitated over 1,000 transactions, generating more than $2.5 million in revenue. Sidespace aims to offer landlords and agents a risk-free platform, where they only pay when a transaction is completed.

With the new funding, Sidespace plans to invest in technology and automation, key hires, and marketing efforts. Several major Australian landlords, including Dexus, BlackWall, and The GPT Group, are already using Sidespace, along with tenants and investors who have expressed satisfaction with the platform.

Sidespace intends to expand its presence in the commercial real estate sector, particularly in the flex office market. By providing a success-fee model and a unique approach, the company aims to introduce a new perspective to the commercial real estate landscape.

According to a report by Reuters which quoted anonymous sources, the activist investor recently bought shares in the Murdoch-controlled media company.

Starboard has a history of pushing for changes at the companies it invests in and was one of the loudest voices behind eBay's sale of its classifieds division to Adevinta in 2020.

Newscorp's market cap currently stands at around $12.5 billion with Starboard said to value the company's portfolio at closer to $20 billion. A Wall Street Journal article said that the hedge fund values Newscorp's crown jewel, the Australian portal company REA Group, at $8 billion alone.

The other Newscorp real estate asset under scrutiny is Move, Inc. the parent company of Realtor.com. In January the portal was almost sold off to CoStar for a reported $3 billion. Since then CoStar has invested heavily in organically building up its own real estate portal asset, Homes.com and recently claimed that it has taken the number two spot from Realtor.com.

Starboard is not the only Newscorp investor that would like to see a change. Reuters reports that Irenic Capital Management last year pushed News Corp to spin off its real estate assets and Dow Jones, the publisher of the Wall Street Journal. Any spin-off or outright sale would almost certainly need approval from the Murdoch family who own 39% of Newscorp's voting shares.

The portal will compete with the likes of REA Group's Realestate.com.au, Homely, and Catalano's former stomping ground Domain.

View is free-to-list for sellers, while a freemium offer will let real estate agents boost listings among other upgrades.

Catalano told Australian publication Elite Agent that View's portal is a much-needed alternative that will stimulate the market by letting homebuyers register interest in properties they find interesting, while also offering far more transparent information about recent sales and market behaviours.

VMG Chairman Anthony Catalano said:

"While VMG is much more than a portal play, it’s critical that we have a consumer-facing brand that will act as the front door to attract consumers and in turn allow us to offer products and services in a range of verticals across the property ecosystem.

"Our plan is to create a digital real estate superstore under the new View brand that will play in the $300 billion adjacency categories rather than solely focus on the $1 billion of digital property advertising.

"With View, our 'Freemium' listings model is a game changer and will allow vendors to list their properties for free, with upgrade options available for those agents who wish to further promote their listings and their brands.

"We’ve listened to the industry and the time is right for an offer to come to market with an alternative model that addresses the real estate industry’s concern at the continually escalating price of advertising."

View.com.au's website lays out the claim that it will "create a more transparent, truthful and informed property market."

And in fairness to it, both the app and the website appear to make good on those promises.

The inclusion of suburb profiles—with details such as median sale prices over time, neighbour demographics (age, income bands, job types) and schooling options—is a welcome addition to the property search experience.

Risks including bushfires and floods are also included on listings.

Watch the TV commercial below:

OneDome introduces school proximity search

UK challenger OneDome has added a new functionality to its search portal that lets users find listings based on their proximity to preferred schools.

Buyers can now search by the name of their selected school, with an interactive map showing matching results.

Babek Ismayil, founder at OneDome, said:

"Choosing the right school for your child is one of the most important decisions parents make, and proximity is a crucial factor when schools decide who to allocate their places to.

"Not only can the location of your home help you integrate with the school community, but it’s also futureproofing your investment.

"A family home near a good or outstanding school will always be in demand."

Realestate.co.nz introduces Tāhū, the real estate robot

Real estate stakeholders in New Zealand can now call upon Tāhū to ease the listing process for agents, vendors and administrators.

A New Zealand first for property portals, Tāhū has already improved accuracy and made the listing process faster.

Powered by Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Tāhū can interact with various applications or websites like a human would while streamlining repetitive processes such as data entry.

Realestate.co.nz says that the robot currently does around 40% of all manual listing bookings and saves staff around 40 hours a week—which will increase as it gets smarter.

Sarah Wood, CEO at realestate.co.nz, said:

"Several listings can't be uploaded immediately to our site every day due to missing information. Tāhū means we will have another set of eyes constantly scouring the system, checking new listings for missing information, and notifying the real estate agent when there may be something they have missed – likely before they've even noticed the listing isn't live."

OnTheMarket introduces Anti-Money Laundering integration

UK challenger OnTheMarket has improved its offering by integrating digital ID and source of funds provider Thirdfort.

Using NFC technology, Thirdfort's app reads and verifies digital signatures and signing keys for thousands of identity documents issued by governments worldwide. International addresses can be verified via Experian data, with 23 jurisdictions covered globally.

OnTheMarket clients will be able to use the Thirdfort integration to handle Right to Rent checks through the portal's TecLet platform.

Source of funds checking will be completed using Open Banking, while PEPs and sanctions screening are included, and 12-month monitoring is also available.

Alan Blockley, CEO at TecLet, said:

"The integration of AML solution Thirdfort within the TecCRM platform builds on our commitment to providing our users with access to best in class, compliant solutions across our suite of products."

Patrick Brierley, partnerships manager at Thirdfort, said:

"We are delighted to integrate our compliance products with OnTheMarket Software and to be able to provide our mutual clients with, what we believe to be, the leading digital ID and source of funds service available in the market today."

Otodom adds free Otodom Concierge service offering

Otodom, The Polish real estate arm of  OLX Group, has launched a free-to-use concierge service for all listings.

Users can use the service to get help from dedicated Otodom Concierge experts to simplify the home search process according to their preferred criteria for their favoured properties.

Users will also receive alerts for new listings that match their needs—and will even be able to request individual offers from sellers.

Xinyi adds AI functions for home searches

Sinyi.com.tw, a leading property portal in Taiwan, has added AI-optimised matching during home searches.

A story from Chinese publication NowNews reports that Xinyi Housing (Sinyi) is the first in the industry to launch to AI smart matching to help consumers filter properties that match more closely to their individual needs, which has been a historically difficult task for homebuyers.

The company has reported a 200% increase in transaction rates since the launch of the AI—which leverages big data—and has won the Silver Award for Best Technical Innovation and Best Product Innovation in the 2023 Innovation Business Awards.

Xinyi says its database of more than 40 years of housing data (it was founded in 1981) is a big contributor to the success of the AI integration, which boasts significantly higher accuracy thanks to the vast range of text, image, and geographical and spatial data at its disposal.

Xinyi has incorporated digital products and services including smart tours, real estate e-passports and mortgages into its portal.

Xinyi operates in Chaina, Japan and Southeast Asia.

SeLoger Neuf Launches Neo Extend to improve qualified leads

Leading French portal SeLoger has launched a new solution that the company says will increase the number of qualified leads for agents.

The solution is for the 'Neuf' (New) arm of SeLoger's real estate operation, which focuses on new-build properties in major markets across France.

Agents using Neo Extend will benefit from a number of perks including simultaneous advertisements of listings across four domains (SeLoger, Logic-Immo Neuf, Seloger, and Logic-Immo).

Listings will be featured prominently on each platform for the first month, as well as extra ads sent via email to highly qualified targets. SeLoger will also expand the listings' visibility to extra postcodes to improve visibility for those properties that would otherwise not show up in searches.

Finally, a retargeting system will show ads to prospects who have submitted specific searches on high-profile websites including Le Monde and L'Equipe.

Franck Le Tendre, vice-president responsible for Operations at AVIV France (SeLoger Meilleurs Agents Group), said:

"Neo Extend boosts the visibility of programs in an unprecedented way by bringing together in a single offer the power of leading sites, the effectiveness of retargeting and the expansion to an additional quality audience.

"As the market tightens, it is a simple and effective solution that allows professionals to significantly increase the number of their contacts and achieve their business objectives."

The company has completed 75% of its raise, securing A$2.1M from lead investors including global fund manager ICM Limited—backers of Gumtree, MoneyMe, Resimac and Humm—and Michelle Catelan from the founding family of RP Data (now CoreLogic). ICM will also be appointed to the Listing Loop board.

The Melbourne-based proptech will seek a further $500,000 AUD to close out the round.

Rhett Dallwitz, co-founder and CEO of Listing Loop, said:

"With a 174% YoY revenue growth, our company is at pivotal stage of acceleration. The raised capital plus the strategic input from our lead investors at a board level will fuel our next phase of growth and help us further build out our end-to-end property transaction solutions.

"The property transaction services sector represents a staggering $363 billion annually. Listing Loop is ready to spearhead this category providing consumers with a streamlined digital ecosystem that revolutionises the property journey from start to finish."

Australia operates an unusual model whereby the property owner pays to market their property, not the agent—a financial burden that can cost homeowners well in excess of A$15,000.

Listing Loop originally operated as a "no sale, no fee" off-market specialist but has since evolved its business model to include an ecosystem of property transaction services.

Since launching in 2019, the startup has already branched out to other offers including Conveyancing Loop, Moving Loop, LoopPay and, more recently, Hello Haus—Australia's top property negotiation and advisory firm, which Listing Loop acquired earlier this year.

The platform is free-to-list and offers vendors the opportunity to test the market by listing anonymously to gauge buyer interest before committing to any marketing expense.

Listing Loop offers a Seller Assist product whereby the portal will aid the vendor in finding a suitable local agent to progress a sale.

The challenger also offers a Do It Yourself option for vendors who want to save money on marketing expenses and agent fees and commissions, with the Listing Loop team guiding the vendor through the process with a suite of helpful tools and services.

Find out more about Listing Loop in Online Marketplaces' interview with CEO Rhett Dallwitz:

New partners including RT Edgar Manningham & Boroondara and Belle Property Armadale, taking Homely to in excess of 685 strategic partners.

In Australia, the vendor pays to market their property—Homely Plus offers cost-effective digital advertising on Homely's portal, which has been visited more than 188 million times since its launch in 2014.

Co-founder and co-CEO Jason Spencer says that the newly announced partnerships are a testament to Homely's efforts to minimise cost where possible:

"We are thrilled by the overwhelming response from advertisers eager to join our VPA advertising model. A recent surge in membership requests further reinforces our commitment to offering unmatched value and reach in the property advertising space where our competitors continue to raise their prices.

"VPA in Australia is amongst the most expensive in the world. Our vision with Homely Plus has always been to offer a highly competitive advertising product that helps vendors promote their properties to a greater pool of potential buyers in a cost effective way. In the current economic climate, this has never been more relevant. The industry understands that it’s time for change.”

Homely achieved revenue growth of over 20% in its Full-year results released in July. It is also the only major portal in Australia to retain steady traffic to its site since September 2022, with each of its three main rivals losing visitors in the same period:

Homely is used by over 9,000 agencies across Australia and is well-known for its user-generated content, including user-submitted neighbourhood reviews and community-driven Q&As.

• Revenue of A$345.7 million, down 3% year-on-year.
• Underlying profit after tax of A$38.6 million and EBITDA of A$109 million.
• EBITDA margin of 31% (34% in FY22).

Domain is the number two real estate portal player in Australia and like eternal rival REA Group, the company suffered from a depressed housing market and some macro headwinds over the course of the last financial year.

Commenting on Domain's plan going forward, CEO, Jason Pellegrino said:

"Domain’s Marketplace Strategy builds on our mission to inspire confidence in life’s property decisions. We are leveraging the strength of our core listings business with additional solutions that add value to customers and consumers, and support them throughout the entirety of their property journeys.

The long-term investment we have undertaken in machine learning and AI is allowing us to leverage these new technologies with internal and market-facing products that provide new commercial applications to futureproof the business.”

Domain's core listings Residential business saw record depth penetration. Like many portals around the world, the company has done a good job of upselling customers with most of its revenues in FY23 coming from premium products rather than basic subscription fees.

It was more of a mixed bag for Domain's Media Developers and Commercial segment which saw revenue declining 3% year-on-year. The commercial real estate segment grew revenue by 6% largely thanks to a new pricing model in the second half of the year.

Agent Solutions revenue was up 88% year-on-year thanks to the acquisition of RealBase. Excluding the acquisition, revenue for the segment was up 6% year-on-year.

Domain Insight (previously referred to as Property Data Solutions) is the segment that houses the company's property data platform, AVM and reporting tools. The segment saw revenue increase 16% and 4% on an underlying basis, excluding the IDS acquisition in October 2021.

Aside from the relatively humdrum performance numbers, Domain's report contained one notable and controversial point.

The company said that it is looking to sell its 60% stake in the Domain Home Loans (DHL) mortgage brokerage business saying that it "sees much greater potential than has been able to be achieved through the joint venture". The venture was accounted for as a discontinued operation in the portal company's 2023 report.

Domain Home Loans' minority shareholder is Lendi, a privately owned digital mortgage brokerage that has been in partnership with Domain since 2017.

Lendi's CEO, Dave Hyman said in a statement seen by Australian Financial Review that it was “fundamentally misleading” and “factually incorrect” that the business was for sale while confirming that Lendi remains "100 per cent supportive" of the joint venture.

“Lendi Group is not aware of any active sale process for the Domain Home Loans JV, and confirms that it is not a buyer of Domain’s stake in the business".

According to Domain's report, DHL was responsible for a A$7.3 million loss in FY23. The company has plans to re-enter the mortgage space and said that the company "remain[s] very confident that home loans can play a key role in our Marketplace strategy in the future".

• Revenue stood at A$1.2 billion, up 1% on the previous year.
• EBITDA (excluding associates) stood at A$651 million, down 3%.
• Net profit was A$372 million, down 9%.
• Indian revenue was up 46% at A$79 million.

REA Group is the owner and operator of the leading Australian real estate portal Realestate.com.au which competes domestically with Domain.com.au. The company is majority-owned (61%) by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

Australian revenue was relatively stable at A$1,104 million despite double-digit drops in residential listings nationally. A company press release put this down to an 11% increase in the money REA Group made from for-sale listings over the course of the financial year as well as a 6% rise in house prices and increased depth penetration of premium marketing packages.

Commenting on the results, REA Group Chief Executive Officer, Owen Wilson said:

“Our year-on-year performance reflects the comparatively very strong listings environment in 2022. Despite the significantly lower listings in FY23, REA Group’s result demonstrates the strength and resilience of our business as customers continued to prioritise our premium products, leading platforms, and superior audience."

Commercial and Developer revenue was up 4% to A$142 million while the company's Media Data and Other segment saw revenue remain flat at $97 million. Domestic traffic decreased slightly to stand at 120.6 million average monthly total visits.

REA Group has a long history of trying to crack the mortgage market in Australia and in 2022 incorporated Mortgage Choice into its results following a A$244 million acquisition of the listed mortgage brokerage in 2021.

REA's financial services division saw revenue decline 13% in FY23 due to slow market activity but the company did manage to add 183 brokers to its network.

As well as its operations at home, REA Group operates the Housing.com and Makaan portals through REA India. The company has managed to grow Housing.com into a traffic leader and continues to invest money in India. REA's operating costs were up 7% in FY23 largely because of "higher costs in India from continued investment in people, increased marketing and growth in revenue related costs."

The Indian business saw revenue grow 46% compared to FY22 to stand at A$79 million. The business has reportedly been successful in upselling customers and onboarding more Indian agents. According to Wilson, REA India actually increased its lead over competitors over the course of the year:

“Our Indian business continued to deliver exceptional revenue growth and extended its leadership position as the No.1 property portal by audience in the Indian market.”

Although the market seemed nonplussed by the Group's results in Friday's trading (shares closed at A$158.6) REA Group's share price has been on an upward trajectory in 2023.

Credit: Google

Other highlights included:

• Circa 700 industry partners including top-ranking principals, agents and influencers
• 29% increase in direct enquires YoY on property listings
• 51% increase in indirect enquiries YoY
• 39% increase in engaged consumer subscribers in the past 12 months

Homely highlighted its advertising product Homely Plus as being a key contributor to the portal's ability to attract agent signups amid sleepy market conditions, including 35 new offices in the past few weeks.

Jason Spencer (pictured, right), co-founder and co-CEO at Homely, said:

"The real estate industry continues to grapple with uncertainties, yet Homely has once again proven its ability to thrive in challenging conditions.

"Our strong revenue growth is a direct result of our team's commitment to growth, innovation and focus on providing value to our customers in an environment where our competitors continue to increase their prices."

Adam Spencer (pictured, left), co-founder and co-CEO at Homely, said:

"Our continued success reflects our focus on developing industry solutions that are cost effective.

"Our Homely Plus membership has been developed with this in mind to add value to our agent partners, while showing their listings to more buyers and sellers on Homely than ever before.

"Homely Group continues to receive growing support from an industry hungry for a paradigm shift. Our products are designed to add value and support agents, while providing affordable but powerful reach for vendors and landlords looking for maximum
exposure.

"We are well on track to create the seismic change we want to see in the Australian property market."

The portal achieved YoY revenue growth of 35% in the previous financial year.

Meanwhile, Homely is the only major portal in Australia to retain traffic to its site since September 2022, with each of its three rivals recording lower visits in June 2023:

• Quarterly revenue stood at A$707k, 20% less than the comparison period. Revenue for the year was down 17.8%.
• The number of RentPay customers increased by 35% to stand at more than 6,000.
• Record performance for the company's financial product RentBond which financed $3.5 million worth of loans in the quarter.

Rent.com.au is a specialist rental portal company that competes with the likes of REA Group-owned Realestate.com.au and Domain.

Like other Australian real estate portal operators, Rent.com.au has been suffering from a soft housing market of late and has seen the performance of its main portal-based advertising revenues drop significantly over the last 12 months.

Despite the adverse market conditions, company CEO, Greg Bader was pleased with his company's performance in the quarter:

"I am pleased with the results we've delivered in the last quarter, with both parts of out business growing. We have delivered our largest ever RentPay quarterly growth, driven by consumer marketing via social media channels and continued strength in demand from real estate agents."

In addition to its core portal business, Rent.com.au has several other consumer-facing convenience products including its RentPay product which lets tenants pay their rent via an app while enabling them to build a reliability scoring and a 'buffer' amount to protect landlords.

RentPay's user base stood at 6,066 at the end of June with the service facilitating around A$2.5 million in rent per week.