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Rockend announces a twenty percent real estate agency commission increase for Movinghub referrals via Property Tree

Announcement posted by Rockend Pty Ltd 04 Jul 2019

Generates new revenue stream for real estate agencies as profit margins contract

Rockend is delighted to announce a 20% increase on the commission that agencies receive from utilities connections provider Movinghub under their Property Tree subscription.

This increase comes at a good time for real estate agencies. According to Macquarie Bank residential commissions are down to as little as 1.5 per cent, while residential property management fees are also declining to 5 per cent. 

The Movinghub service is a complimentary utilities connection service that Rockend made available to Property Tree users in 2018.

It helps agencies deliver more value to tenants as they move to their new home, and at the same time generates effortless new revenue.

Revenue generated from property services represents great opportunities for agencies to grow their bottom line. Macquarie Bank's annual real estate benchmark report estimates the utilities service market represents a $15 billion opportunity for property management companies, the second largest after rental payment solutions.

"As a company, our aim is to help real estate agencies deliver more personalised experiences to their clients. Offering a utilities connection service to new tenants can be a point of difference for many agencies" says Alister Maple-Brow, Rockend CEO. 

"The best part is that this service is both free and revenue-generating for real estate businesses. With margins currently under pressure in many agencies, this price increase is a positive move that will have an immediate impact on agencies' profit line. 

"Moving forward, as we continue to grow our partner ecosystem, we expect to create more equally rewarding experiences for our customers", concludes Maple-Brown.

The agency commission increase applies to electricity and gas connections and became effective on July 2, 2019:

- Electricity referral commission increased from $58 to $70 per connection

- Gas referral commission increased from $42 to $50 per connection

Agencies can also run their utilities connections service on auto-pilot and opt to refer automatically all their new tenants created in Property Tree to a Movinghub "movologist". They can do so by enabling the automatic referral option in Property Tree

What to do: Property Tree users using Movinghub 

Property Tree users already using Movinghub don't need to do anything. The price increase will be reflected automatically in the commission fees paid by Movinghub.

If a user wants to enable auto-referral, this knowledge base article explains how to activate this feature in Property Tree. 

What to do: For agencies not using Movinghub

Property Tree users who aren't yet using the Movinghub utilities connections service can simply activate the free service under the Property Tree configuration panel (go to Configuration>Integrations>Utilities Integrations).

Real estate businesses that want to learn more about Property Tree and how it integrates with utilities connections services like Movinghub, contact a Rockend specialist today.

Price increase table

See the table below for an overview of the price increase changes:

UTILITY TYPE

FROM

 TO

GAS

$42

$50

ELECTRICITY

$58

$70

Media inquiries

Catherine Vissiere, Head of Marketing, Rockend