Perth-based real estate entrepreneur Mark Woschnak is taking his first steps into the realm of online property marketing, launching a website dedicated entirely to the Australian rental property market under the domain rent.com.au.
The website has been developed in Perth over the past two years and allows agents, property managers and landlords to target a national rental audience, while giving renters the opportunity to conduct more detailed searches on residential properties.
Soon, rural, commercial and industrial leases will also be options that renters and companies can search for.
Mr Woschnak said he was glad to be out of the initial research and development phase and had established a core team of staff in Perth including six executives.
“A large proportion of our start-up capital has been used to build the user interface and technology to link the site with the various management software programs used by property managers and agents,” he said.
“They can now list rental data at their office which will then be automatically uploaded to our site.”
Mr Woschnak said he had almost all of the reputable real estate software providers on board to facilitate an easier transmission of information between property managers, agents and the website.
Since its launch last year, rent.com.au has signed up more than 500 agents across Australia and has the other estimated 9,500 agents firmly in its sights.
“Property managers and agents are embracing on-line marketing because it massively reduces print expenditure, broadens their reach and allows them to promote their brand,” he said.
Renters browsing the site can find links to government departments and property related services.
Rent.com is already operating in the US and is believed to be the number one rental site in that country.
Securing the generic domain name in Australia was one of Mr Woschnak’s first major challenges, and an expensive exercise at that.
He hopes the business will quickly develop a large and diverse pool of rental properties across Australia to allow it to provide statistical information on rental yields for property investors and average rental prices from suburb to suburb.
