Aussie online commercial property traffic diverted to NZ

Realestate.co.nz has negotiated a partnership deal with Australian online real estate portal REA Group, which will see Australian investors interested in New Zealand commercial property directed to the New Zealand company's website.

Effective from the end of this month, REA Group, operator of the Australian sites Realestate.com.au and Realcommercial.com.au, will cease to operate the specialist New Zealand version of its website, Realcommercial.co.nz

Australians will now be directed to the new Realestate.co.nz website, Primecommercial.co.nz

Alistair Helm, CEO of Realestate.co.nz, says the partnership is a natural alignment with the Australian site of Realcommercial.com.au, which regularly receives more than 700,000 visitors per month. "All these visitors will now be exposed to the link to New Zealand listings on Primecommercial.co.nz," he says.

"The number one overseas market for visitors to the Primecommercial.co.nz site is Australia, with Australian visitors representing one in 12 of all traffic over the past year, and we expect that interest to grow significantly in the next year."

Primecommercial.co.nz was launched two years ago as a dedicated commercial property website, featuring more than 26,000 listings of property for sale or lease.

Helm says the site receives about 18,000 visitors a month, with quarter-on-quarter growth of 6 per cent. He says the new partnership reflects a strong relationship between Realestate.co.nz and REA Group. "In 2008, the website of Allrealestate.co.nz, specialising in residential property, closed operations in New Zealand and that agreement saw Realestate.co.nz benefit from significant traffic redirected on a similar structure from the Realestate.com.au website.

"We view this new partnership as just a start, with more plans upcoming, which reflect our recognition of the importance of online marketing to this key sector of the real estate industry."