Trade Me wants all properties listed on its site

Sam Morgan

Trade Me is aiming to list every house, flat, section, farm or property for sale in New Zealand.

And after only a year of listing property, the online auction site has already grabbed a third of the market.

Trade Me founder and general manager Sam Morgan said talks were being held with leading franchised real estate agencies after the website's success in signing up The Professionals and Ray White Real Estate.

From today a third agency, the 105-office First National Real Estate, will list all its 4000 properties for sale on the website.

Although First National will continue to market its properties through traditional channels, both parties view the deal as a move to draw more overseas buyers to New Zealand.

And they see potential for expansion.

First National chief executive Gary Mason said the agreement would help his business to attract overseas buyers.

"Being on a site with a global profile fits well with our international referral programme by increasing the ability for offshore buyers to access our listings," he said.

Morgan said having a large business like First National was a boost for his 1.2 million members and Trade Me expected to soon sign other large franchised agencies.

"Harcourts, Remax, Bayleys, LJ Hooker and Barfoot's - we're trying to go for the larger ones and, ultimately, consumers will wonder why their properties are not on Trade Me," Morgan said. "There are between 50,000 and 60,000 properties on the market at any one time. We're listing up to about 20,000 properties so we have roughly a third of the market, but we want to get to 100 per cent."

Agencies paid $50 to list a property, regardless of how long the property remained on the website.

"In terms of value, it's clearly going to be so much cheaper than newspaper advertising and it has an impact on newspapers," Morgan said. However, he expected that exclusive properties would continue to draw large-format glossy print advertisements.

Trade Me business manager Mike O'Donnell said he was talking to several agencies considering listing all their properties on the website.

He found that somewhat ironic because a year ago some agents advised Trade Me against entering the sector.

"Last year, we were told by incumbents we were wasting their time and no agencies would list all their properties with us because people saw us being above private sales."

Trade Me made its initial foray into real estate advertising last winter. On June 16, it listed the first houses for sale and has now climbed to the top of the online sector. Research from Nielsen//NetRatings suggests Trade Me is the most popular site for house hunters and tenants.

In March this year, Trade Me made a serious attempt to get more rental listings by striking a deal to download formatted listings from licensed property managers and posting thousands of flats and houses online.

O'Donnell said then that the website had only 2000 rental property listings, most seeking flatmates.

The licensed agencies would "auto-feed" the data, remotely supplying Trade Me with daily updates and providing great potential for new business.


HITTING THE WEB

Browser visits last month:

* trademe.co.nz: 323,861
* harcourts.co.nz: 121,150
* realenz.co.nz: 104,472
* open2view.com: 101,994
* allrealestate.co.nz: 68,834

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings Market Intelligence