Commercialrealestate has been operating in Australia for some years now and is slowly building up a healthy content base.
During the week I had the pleasure of talking to a number of commercial agents and I was surprised to learn just how impressed they were with this site and its support. Generally the feeling was that the sites owners and operators were genuinely interested in the success of the agents.
They don’t have the marketing power of Realcommercial and also do not have the cash in the bank that many of the majors can draw upon but one thing they do have is loyal clientele base.
After my talk I fielded a number of questions and I was heartened by the enthusiasm of not only company directors but also their staff. Some of the questions that I was asked surprised me with the level of understanding.
There is still a big information hole in general with many agents but it is good that they are starting to ask the right questions.
With Realestate.com.au and Realcommercial.com.au more than likely being gobbled up by News Ltd, there is a real need in the marketplace for competition and at the moment it is not coming from Fairfax’s Domain portal.
This leaves sites like Commercialrealestate and other “sleepers” around the country.
Many private portals are trying to band together to form a super portal, and I have been approached to join this. However I just cannot see it working, too many people with differing ideas/goals do not make for a smart business model. I do wish them well but my concentration will be on my clients and servicing their needs.
So it will be interesting what happens in the future with Commercialrealestate because wants News Ltd starts circling there could be problems, but that does not stop a company like Fairfax or for that matter Ninemsn jumping in there.
Fairfax seem to be the obvious choice to buy Commercialrealestate as it already has a great market share in Commercial Classifieds with the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age Mastheads.
We also have to assume that Commercialrealestate want to sell! I don’t know what their position is but every year they keep building the value will just keep going north, especially since we have seen a renewed hunger from traditional media players for all things Internet (successful Internet that is)