REIWA moves to new space

IT’S been a busy few weeks for the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia, which has announced two significant deals – the development of a new headquarters and the expansion of its website by acquisition.

Last week, REIWA revealed it has agreed with property player Match to redevelop its offices on Hay Street, Subiaco, with a plan to build on half of the site while leasing its existing headquarters, which would then be redeveloped in two years’ time.

The details of the deal have not been made public but it requires Match to raise the funds via a reported $6 million raising.

In the internet space, REIWA has moved to consolidate its number two position in the local online property advertising market by acquiring boutique rival aussiehome.com. The price remains undisclosed.

The co-founder of aussiehome.com, Charlie Gunningham, has been appointed as manager of reiwa.com and his six staff have become REIWA employees.

The merger of the players puts the combined reiwa.com monthly traffic at 360,000 to 380,000 unique browsers, compared to market leader realestate.com.au, which has an estimated 500,000 unique browsers per month from WA. At about one third the size of reiwa.com, aussiehome.com had a client base of about 140 agents focused in and around Perth’s western suburbs.

The merger will also give REIWA greater capacity for in-house development because aussiehome.com ran a web development business and was considered more innovative.

The content from aussiehome.com will be merged with reiwa.com but the sites will also run in tandem for at least the rest of the year.

REIWA chief executive Anne Arnold said both deals were part of the organisation’s strategy to focus on improving the professionalism and image of real estate agents.

“It is about how we present ourselves to the public and the building and what we are doing with reiwa.com are part of that,” Ms Arnold said.

Last year, REIWA closed down a real estate magazine and it has also exited the printing business.