Homely.com.au launches revolutionary new website, set to reinvent real estate search in Australia

MELBOURNE, VIC - DECEMBER 2013 - Homely.com.au, a revolutionary new real estate website, is set to become the go-to resource for people looking to find their next home. By combining Australia’s most beautiful search experience with free listings and innovative marketing platforms for real estate agents, Homely was founded as a fresh alternative to Australia’s other real estate websites.

“We set out to reinvent what real estate search should look like in Australia”, said Jason Spencer, Homely Co-Founder. “We’ve created a new way to discover your next home through beautiful, simple design. No banner ads and no page turns make a big difference to the experience.”

Homebuyers and renters can also get answers about where to live with access to over 500,000 suburb ratings, reviews and discussions written by locals through one of the largest communities in Australia.

Homely is building on the successful community it created through StreetAdvisor.com.au where over 10 million people visited over the past 5 years helping consumers to get answers on topics as diverse as "Best Schools in Melbourne" to "Best coastal areas for families in Queensland”.

Another feature not seen in this country before is the Homely Pro marketing platform for real estate professionals. “To date Agents haven’t been able to do much on real estate sites other than sell a home”, commented Co-Founder Adam Spencer. Homely wants to help agents win their next listing by building powerful online relationships with potential buyers and sellers through unique “Local Expert” profiles and “Office Showcase pages. “It’s all about building engagement and brand loyalty even when people aren’t ready to move”, said Spencer. Agents earn points for helping consumers with their questions and are awarded expert status in the suburbs they service.

On launch Homely will have over 1700 real estate offices providing 100,000 listings including well known brands like Ray White, LJ Hooker, Harcourts, Belle Property, Starr Partners and RT Edgar with more companies set to be added in the New Year.

Spencer said “Real estate agents are screaming for competition in this country and we’re adding new agents every day. More importantly we’ve had over 10 million people visit our community looking for information so we’re already providing great value …property listings on Homely complete the end-to-end experience.”

Head of Digital for Ray White, Darren McCoy said "People like talking about homes and lifestyles. Property is now a talking point, a social topic. So searching for your next home or investment should be a socially-enabled process. We’re putting Ray White listings into the first and only social portal space in Australia, where you can pin images, share homes and engage in the property space with friends and family.  

To ensure we have quality listing distribution across the internet for our vendors and their buyers, we have chosen to support homely.com.au".

Douglas Driscoll, CEO of Starr Partners believes Homely can help. “According to recent research, the costs attributed to property portal advertising in Australia is currently the highest in the developed world. The exponential rise in these costs can mainly be attributed to a lack of genuine competition in the digital space. With the full support and backing of the industry, Homely could offer home buyers a viable alternative to the traditional portals whilst helping agents keep their advertising costs to a more sensible level.”

About Homely

Founded by Jason Spencer and Adam Spencer, Homely.com.au is a free to list, banner-ad free real estate website that helps people find their next home by focusing on beautiful design, innovative local marketing platforms for real estate agents built on top of one of the largest communities in Australia dedicated to helping people make better decisions about where they choose to live. The company is based in Melbourne, Australia.