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F2 LAUNCHES REAL ESTATE SUPERSITE DOMAIN.COM.AU domain.com.au lets you view property from every angle on the web, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day Wednesday, October 20, 1999: F2, the Fairfax Interactive Network, today announced its third major classified supersite called domain.com.au. The new real estate site - which goes live on Thursday, October 21 – combines comprehensive information, virtual tours, local demographics, financial information, powerful search functions and advice for buyers, sellers, renters and real estate agents. domain.com.au will have property listings from leading real estate agents and Fairfax publications. In addition to this 14,500 listings currently on Fairfax@Market, will be incorporated into the site and F2 plans to substantially increase this number in the coming months. The site also offers news and features from The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Sun Herald, as well as content developed specifically for the site. Users can receive e-mails when the home of their dreams becomes available, or create a shortlist of favourites to refer to at a later date. Speaking at today’s launch, Fred Hilmer, CEO of John Fairfax Holdings, said, "domain.com.au continues and strengthens our strategy of leveraging exceptional content from our publications, adapting it to the Internet, and taking a leadership position in online real estate e-commerce. "With our number one position on the net, we are transforming the way residential properties are found, sold and rented. domain.com.au will provide more information about a property and its surrounding suburb than any other site in Australia.
"This is a powerful extension of our classifieds and real estate tools, and is specifically designed to be of great value to real estate agents and their activities. domain.com.au will help forge a stronger relationship between Fairfax publications and the real estate industry so we can be even better partners in the years ahead," Mr Hilmer added. According to McKinsey research, the real estate market in Sydney and Melbourne is worth over $34 billion with more than 5,000 real estate agents competing for business. Many Australian real estate agents have already discovered the competitive advantage of selling property online and based on the US experience, this will continue to increase. Forrester Research predicts that online advertising by real estate agents in the United States will grow from $US50 million in 1999 to over $400 million in 2003. Previously, Australian real estate agents have had residential and commercial listings on Fairfax@Market. This general classifieds site currently attracts over 2 million page views per month which, according to F2, are primarily related to property. "We have built on the success of Fairfax@Market and applied our experience to develop a specialised residential real estate supersite," said Dean Gingell, Managing Director, Fairfax Online. "We have allocated extensive resources to develop the site and will be heavily marketing the brand to ensure it will become the leading online destination for real estate in Australia. "domain.com.au will make the whole process of finding a home quicker and more enjoyable. There’s less stress and less running around because all the information is in one place. By being better informed, buyers and renters will be able to react faster and be confident they have made the right choice. "We are serious about providing an interactive experience for users and to encourage this, we are giving away away 2,000 Surround Pix virtual tours to real estate agents for use on our site," he said. Ease of use Information on domain.com.au is tailored according to whether you are a buyer, renter, seller or agent in New South Wales or Victoria. For example, a search for a home for sale provides localised information such as:
The buyer can also:
Benefits for real estate agents Fairfax combines the traditional strengths of its leading real estate print classifieds, with the largest family of web sites in Australia, attracting more than 1.4 million page views per day. This combination results in a much larger audience and far wider distribution than any one publication or site can offer. Real estate agents using domain.com.au can tap into this audience and provide their clients with a broad marketing package that enhances their print advertising. They can also choose their property of the week, apply 'sold' stickers to recently sold properties and instantly list properties for rent. Chris Hadcroft, Sales Coordinator, Raine and Horne Annandale, said "Fairfax@Market has proven to be a very successful sales tool, generating enquiries from all over Australia. More importantly, it has provided us with quite a few new listings. It also saves us time because prospective buyers get all the information they need before calling to arrange an inspection. "The additional features and branding opportunities offered by domain.com.au will provide even greater benefits." The extensive ad management system on domain.com.au makes it simple for agents to create or revise listings at any time. They can also provide a branded profile on the organisation and agents, link to a corporate web site or provide an e-mail contact form to arrange an inspection. According to Peter Bennison, Director of Bennison MacKinnon Real Estate, "Over the past year, listing our properties on Fairfax@Market has resulted in a greater volume of enquiries from qualified buyers. As it is a specialised site, domain.com.au will provide an even better marketing tool for our agency and our clients." – ENDS – About Fairfax John Fairfax Holdings Limited [ASX:FXJ] is Australia’s leading publishing group. Its newspapers and magazines include The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian Financial Review, The Age, The Sun Herald, and BRW. In addition, the company publishes financial and consumer magazines, and provides online services. In 1999, the company had revenues of over $1.1 billion. Fairfax corporate and financial announcements are posted on our Web site: www.fairfax.com.au/fairfax_corporate. F2, the Fairfax Interactive Network, is a wholly owned subsidiary of John Fairfax Holdings Limited [ASX:FXJ]. It is Australia’s leading content provider on the Internet with around 1.4 million page views per day across a network of sites which include: news (smh.com.au, theage.com.au, sunherald.com.au and it.fairfax.com.au); business (afr.com.au and brw.com.au); personal finance (tradingroom.com.au, moneymanager.com.au, shares.aust.com and personalinvestor.com.au); automotive (drive.com.au); search/directory (melbournetoday.com.au); employment (mycareer.com.au and itjobs.fairfax.com.au); online auctions (SOLD.com.au); real estate (domain.com.au, market.fairfax.com.au and apn.brw.com.au); sports (sportstoday.com.au, rugbyheaven.com.au, footy99.com.au, cricket.fairfax.com.au and smh.com.au/league); travel (walkabout.com.au); city guides for Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra (citysearch.com.au); Big Colour Pages, the only complete national Internet and print business directory; and free e-mail (todaymail.com.au). For further information, an interview or graphics, please contact: F2 Hill
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Fairfax > Corporate Affairs & Media Releases > Announcements > DOMAIN
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