While Australia’s two biggest real estate websites continue to argue with each other over who dominates the market, we asked leading industry figures what they think about Domain versus REA Group. Please add your comments below. 

John Bongiorno, Director and Auctioneer at Marshall White, said Domain was the preferred site in his Melbourne market. “We certainly get better qualified inquiry off Domain in our markets because in our markets there’s a slight preference for Domain. More sophisticated markets prefer Domain. It’s vastly better inquiry and it all comes down to the quality of the inquiry.”

Bongiorno said Marshall White always list on both sites. “REA charges $3,500 for a premiere listing and I don’t think there is a necessity to pay for that. It costs more to list a house in Toorak under their model. I think Domain certainly provides better quality for money for vendors.”

Kylie Walsh, General Manager of Di Jones in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, said different suburbs prefer different sites. “For our company the never-ending debate over Domain and REA depends on the suburb and the audience to where most traffic comes from,” said Walsh. “For us, we receive more enquiry from Domain on Woollahra and Paddington, but that would also have a lot to do with the top spot and SEM we invest on those locations. Emerging suburbs with a younger demographic such as Randwick, Surry Hills and Bondi Junction reflects a lot higher traffic and engagement on realestate.com.au than Domain.”

Walsh said it’s the job of professional real estate agents to demonstrate and research where vendors and landlords should invest marketing. “More than ever it is critical for our landlords to have solid online strategies to reduce vacancy and ensure their capital returns are optimized,” she said. “For example in a training session with our team yesterday we viewed rentals in Paddington and there were 17 pages of properties but because we have invested in top spot with Domain we own that number one position and we get nearly double the amount of enquiry on these properties. Clients cannot afford to get lost on page 3 or 4, or worse, page 17.”

Jeremy Rosens, Director and Auctioneer at Gary Peer & Associates St Kilda, said he uses both sites. “We do put all our online listings on both websites and in fact others,” said Rosens. “We do, however, find that both purchasers and vendors see greater value in realestate.com as it seems to generate more traffic.”

“I do recommend our clients list on both sites to ensure full coverage and in particular interstate tend to use Domain more than REA,” said Cathy Richards, lead agent at Place Bulimba in Queensland. “REA seems to generate more enquiries generally across the board. I think it is more important that you have genuine views and fewer of them,” said Richards.

Hayden Groves, REIA Deputy President and Principal/Director at detheridgeGROVES Real Estate in Fremantle, said realestate.com.au is by far the most dominant player in Western Australia, followed by the industry-owned portal REIWA.com. “Domain is working hard at breaking into the WA market and not having a lot of success,” said Groves. “At the moment it’s free for agents to use.

“Realestate.com.au are admonished by agents in WA, we hate them. The worst thing is you are beholden to them, they are almost monopolistic in their behavior.” To illustrate the difference between the portals’ reach in WA, Groves said that out of 20 inquiries for a property, 12 will come from realestate.com.au, 7 will come from REIWA.com and 1 will from Domain.

“We advise our vendors to go on REIWA.com. Obviously because of my role I’d like to see REIWA.com build up, and as a practitioner I’d like to see the industry be less reliant on realestate.com.au. It’s certainly the most powerful site here by a long run.” Groves said a headline listing on REIWA.com is $70 (with a premium subscription) for the life of the listing, whereas realestate.com.au charges $660 for 30 days for a highlight listing.

“Agents care about getting genuine inquiries from websites, so quality is better than quantity,” said Groves.

The general consensus among the industry seems to be that a presence on multiple sites is necessary, but some agents have a preference for a particular site based off what works best for them and their particular market. The debate gets down to how many leads a digital ad actually generates, and the quality of those leads.  When it comes to portals, agents think of the advertising in terms of dollars per lead, and what the return is on their investment in these sites.