By
Following the success of its recent capital raising, a proptech startup has pledged to expand the market share of buyer’s agents in Australia’s residential property market, also helping to give more Aussies a "fair go" in the housing market.
BuyersBuyers.com.au co-founder and CEO Doron Peleg said there is an opportunity to boost the involvement of buyer's agents given the current affordability situation in the housing market
According to Peleg, around just 3% of the average residential property purchases each year in Australia involve buyer's agents – substantially lower than in the United States, where roughly 45% of transactions involve buyer's agents.
"The capital raising will help us to significantly increase the pie of home buyers who use buyer’s agents, and to acquire a more substantial slice of transactions in the Australian residential property market," said Peleg.
BuyersBuyers.com.au's online platform connects property buyers to leading experts across the country, with entry level services costing around a third of the price typically paid for buyer’s agent services; as such, the platform aims to provide every home buyer in Australia a "fair go" in the housing market.
Peleg said the goal in the next five years is to use mass marketing to expand the buyer's agents' footprint to 10% of all property transactions.
"We will also use the funds raised to further improve our IT capabilities, which forms the foundation of the service delivery and consequently, our considerably more affordable product pricing," he said.
Recently, BuyersBuyers.com.au has raised a “substantial amount” from a group of high net worth individuals led by ex-Chobani MD Peter Meek, Singapore-based Fortune 500 Executive Jeff Cook and other tech entrepreneurs.
As Meek sees it, what makes the investment attractive is the problem that the BuyersBuyers.com.au is addressing.
"The addressable market is massive, and the team is highly experienced. Buying a property is the single biggest financial decision many Australians will make in their lifetime, but far too many still leave it to chance," he said.
"By making it easier and more affordable for home buyers to save thousands on their purchase price with the help of an expert buyer’s agent, BuyersBuyers.com.au is addressing a clear gap in the Australian marketplace."
Pete Wargent, co-founder and COO of BuyersBuyers.com.au, said the startup is also attracting strong interest from strategic industry partners.
“Alongside our mass-marketing B2C campaigns, strategic affiliations and referrals can help us to significantly grow the market and our market share over the next five years, and we’re positioned to deal with very high volumes,” he added.
