CommercialView will be launching its Queensland presence with an information evening on 24 August.
On 24 August, CommercialView will launch its presence in the Queensland market, giving commercial agents the opportunity, not only to find out about CommercialView, but also to become a shareholder in the business.
CommercialView is the largest independent commercial property portal in Australia. The other big portals are RealCommercial, which is owned by News Limited, and commercialrealestate.com.au, which is part of the Fairfax group.
Since December last year, CommercialView has been 100% owned by industry participants, primarily commercial property agents, and is overseen by members of the industry.
Macquarie Bank economist Bruce Wan will deliver a market overview at next week's launch, and the CommercialView board will host an information session about the portal.
Wan will discuss the state of the global economy, and the implications for the Australian economy and the commercial real estate market. Wan will focus on Asian trends, which is of particular pertinence to CommercialView, which has an exclusive commercial property partnership with Chinese property portal giant, Juwai.com.
The event aims to highlight the fact that if agents band together, CommercialView can become a viable alternative to the bigger players, thereby lowering the costs of online listings which have been rising in recent times. If agents choose to become shareholders in Commercial View, they will have the opportunity to participate in growth of the business, and can have some influence on the commercial property portal space.
Daniel Bignold, CEO of CommercialView, says the platform is intended to be fair and equitable for agents. "Because we’re owned by agents, we’re here to create a fair platform. We want to make it fair and equable and affordable for agents around the country," he said.
Bignold said the dominant players in the market have been able to press prices higher, putting pressure on commercial property agents. "We have a price point that’s very fair and reasonable, and is less than our competitors," he said.
CommercialView depends on the support of agents to build momentum in the market and to compete against the larger players, says Bignold.
CommercialView held a similar event in Sydney in April, explaining the opportunities to agents. Since then, the site has had record transactions every month, and gained new customers. "We want to do the same thing in Queensland," says Bignold, "spread the word, spread our footprint."
"We need the agents' help to partner with us to become a viable competitor to the big guys," he said. "We have a loyal shareholder and customer network, that’s our core strength and competitive edge that we now need to harness and leverage to grow."
The 24 August event will be held in conjunction with the REIQ.
Date: Wednesday 24 August 2016
Time: 6-9pm
Venue: Moda Events Portside, Level 2, 39 Hercules Street, Hamilton QLD 4007
See also:
CommercialView eyes national expansion