Welcome to the third instalment of our PPW Awards series, where we highlight portals from established, emerging and early-stage markets around the world that have an innovative approach to running a successful property portal.
Each instalment will highlight one overall winner and one honourable mention. Today’s winners come from the established market of Oceania.
Overall winner: realestate.co.nz
Who they are: Set up in 2006 as a re-branding of Real Estate Institute of New Zealand website realenz.co.nz, realestate.co.nz has established itself as the top property portal in New Zealand. In April 2010, the portal segmented its content and launched specialist websites for commercial property, businesses for sale and rural property.
Why we chose them: What stands out about realestate.co.nz is its engagement with its audience. CEO Alistair Helm makes use of social media channels including the portal’s blog to communicate with users, which became particularly important during realestate.co.nz’s bumpy relaunch in early 2010. The portal also worked with land and property information company Terralink International to set up zoodle.co.nz, which offers data such as property valuations and sales statistics for almost every property in New Zealand.
Honourable mention: realestate.com.au
Who they are: First launched in 1997, realestate.com.au has grown to become Australia’s top property portal, reporting half year revenues of AUD$114.3 million at the end of 2010. Its listings cover approximately 95 percent of the residential market.
Why we chose them: With its website overhaul in April 2010, realestate.com.au has put the focus on usability, offering a more intuitive property search that relies on the user interface to do a lot of the work for home hunters. This improvement for users is particularly important when considering the fact that realestate.com.au is all but synonymous with property search in Australia.
Tune in later this week when we reveal our next set of PPW Award winners.
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