Fairfax creates new Domain real estate business entity
Domain Group head: Antony Catalano.
Fairfax Media is embracing the Victorian partnership model with real estate agents to control 50 per cent of a newly created property business on a national basis.
The move to the new model comes just a month after the publisher bought out the remaining half of Metro Media, the Victorian-based publishing group started by the head of Domain Anthony Catalano which pioneered the joint ownership model.
It will comes as Fairfax looks to beef up its property offering, one of its most lucrative revenue streams, to compete with News Corp backed rival REA Group, which has a market capitalisation of $6.49bn, compared to Fairfax’s $2.08bn.
An interesting new publishing business model, which if the reports are to be believed will have made Mr Catalano a very wealthy young man. I wonder if this is a model that could be applied to the rest of the Fairfax Media divisions that might then provide Gina Rinehart (or other potential investors) confidence that Fairfax has a plan for the future.
As a footnote, Mr Catalano must be the only executive to have been retrenched during the McCarthy era to have multiplied his payout multiple times by setting up as a competitor and then selling back to the company that dispensed with his services.
Cat, you’re a genius! I am simply in awe…..
Interesting move, but utterly ridiculous…
I used to work closely with real estate agents in an advertising capacity. Most of them have NO concept of how to advertise their properties, they only know how to sell houses!
We would advise and their ‘strategy’ was to pit the two dominant property sites against each other for cheaper listings, then complain why Domain never had as much reach….And you are going to let these guys have a 50% stake in how things are run?!
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Smart. Disrupting the model. REA is a absolute giant and Domain doesnt have anything to lose. Catalano has recruited a strong team around him and having watched him for years at The Age, I don’t think anyone should underestimate this man. He’s clearly not doing it for the money. Interesting to watch.
Slowly but surely people are listing their own properties for sale on the internet and doing away with real estate agents altogether.
Gumtree has released a 14% year on year increase in private house for sale listings.
Capable people who read this article will understand the implications of the Fairfax-Agent co-op model (yes it is a conflict of interest regardless of the outcome).
Food for thought….Domain accepts private listings while REA does not. So could Catalano’s plan be to work with the agents (making truckloads of cash along the way) and at the same time knowingly fueling the private listing market? Is Cat that clever at playing the long game?
@Bill… Domain can lose more of their (2%) market share?
Not sure what you mean Cheeky? Seems you’re reading some propaganda?
>> Discerning Hipster – only a few agents know how to sell property. Most of them only know how to get listings – usually by cutting their sales comm/fees to the bone. Very few actually market the properties.
Once they get the vendor signed up they’ll take a few photos and get “the girl” to get the card for the front window created and the copy for the portals etc sent off. You can tell that most of the “creatives” are done by people who left school with a very poor grasp of English grammar and spelling just by reading a few listings at random.
I’ve talked to a few REA principals about this – they admit they are in the thrall of the portals and their ever increasing fees but are at a loss to know what they can do except cop it.
Google has made it very hard for individual REAs to get their sites on the first page of the SERPs because the portal listings dominate the top 10 results.
If Fairfax shareholders and ACCC do not climb into this with microscopes both deserve what follows.