A technology-backed disruptor is making headway in real estate with a different agency model and fee structure.
THERE’S nothing stopping people selling their own home, and yet 99 per cent of residential property sales in Western Australia are made using licensed agents and representatives.
That’s an overwhelming statistic, particularly when it could be reasonably assumed some technology would have come along by now to enable homeowners to sell their own properties. Or at least have the confidence to give it a go.
After all, the connectivity of the internet, social media, blockchain and artificial intelligence could make the real estate market more transparent, equal and efficient.
Perhaps we don’t buy and sell our own properties very often because the financial transaction is so significant we prefer to bring in a local expert to do the job.
Real estate agents must be doing a good job, too.
Over the years, technologies purporting to be the ‘Uber of real estate’ have come and gone.
Interestingly, in this year’s Plus Eight accelerator program – a finishing school for the most promising local startups – there are two property tech businesses looking to shake things up.
Launched by buyers’ agent Zoe Vos, Switch my House allows potential sellers to find a property to move to before listing their own, and prepare themselves for the sales process.
Meanwhile, KeyHive has been set up by husband-and-wife team Aaron and Lauren Mijatovic.
They decided to dive into the industry, learning it from the inside, while experimenting with a relatively low fixed-fee sales model.
Using artificial intelligence to lower the back-office costs and deliver additional services to clients (such as photo cleaning and virtual home dressing), they wanted to offer sellers everything from a free do-it-yourself model to a full-agency service for a fixed fee of $8,000.
While Ms Mijatovic studied at night to qualify as an agent, her husband tackled the technology. With a background in electrical engineering, he built the entire platform using AI-coding tools.
Compared with standard percentage-based commissions, where fees can easily top $30,000 on an average Perth home, the Mijatovics’ offering had a competitive price but no guarantees people would use it.
Launched in January 2026, the platform’s first listing was a logistical trial by fire: a Kalgoorlie property that was sold to an interstate buyer.
From a standing start, with no franchise backing, no established brand, no referral networks and no sales experience, KeyHive completed five sales in March 2026 and has achieved $113,000 in contracted revenue overall since starting the business.
To put that in perspective, the Real Estate Institute of WA benchmarks six as the top standard for a rookie agent.
“We believe the next generation of real estate service companies won’t look like traditional agencies,” Ms Mijatovic told Business News.
“AI can handle the admin, coordination, research, compliance and repetitive work. Meanwhile, humans will handle the trust, negotiation and judgment.”
The couple does all this with three children under the age of seven and Ms Mijatovic working three days a week as a chemical engineer. Mr Mijatovic works full time on the business, handling all the administration.
At the time of writing, the team had listed its 30th property for sale, so are well on their way to having a sensational first year.
The current challenge for KeyHive is scale.
Ms Mijatovic currently manages every listing personally to maintain their five-star Google review status, but the goal is to automate further and contract salespeople to expand capacity.
Their aim is to hit 100 listings a year, and from there take the model nationwide, changing the real estate industry from the inside.
Whether KeyHive or another emerging tech player will fundamentally disrupt the $1.1 trillion real estate market is yet to be seen.
However, the evidence so far would suggest this is the closest the market has come to a technology-backed disruptor, making headway with a different agency model and fee structure.
• Charlie Gunningham has spent 25 years in WA’s startup sector, is on the WA government’s Innovation Advisory Board and is chair of Startup WA
