Property Portal Gouging

Certainly the most expensive portal, Realestate.com.au typically presents itself as the most visited property portal by buyers, which offers the predominant reason vendors want to be listed on it and why most agents have a subscription to it. While it is understandable that agents and vendors use the portal for its high traffic statistics it offers no reason why buyers should continue to favour it in their search for property, for the simple reason that not all agents and not all properties are listed on either of their servers because of the very high cost.

In comparison portals like Homely.com.au in most cases duplicate the listings on the major portals Realestate.com.au and Domain for the simple reason that agents using the main portals can also list on Homely.com.au for free, while agents who don't subscribe to either or both of the main portals can also list their properties on Homely.com.au for free. Potentially, a free site like Homely.com.au then, besides arguably offering buyers a better user experience, free of the clutter of ads, should literally offer buyers access to all of the properties offered for sale on the Australian market not just most of them.
At the moment, built on the premise that the major portals have the most visitors, the portals charge thousands for listings, a far cry from the $30.00 dollar fee to list a vehicle on Carsales.com.au who's car portal software and technological abilities would not be too far off the capacities of the major property portals. Agents, who complain about this gouging, have the ability to change the behaviour of buyers over time by promoting sites like Homely in their own marketing material, signboards, window cards and even business cards "see our properties on Homely.com.au" even if they continue to use the major portals until such time as buyer's behaviour changes and or portal fees are reduced as the major portals get the message.