Google Australia enters online property market

The Australian division of internet search giant Google has now introduced real estate listings on Google Maps, in a move that is set to shake-up the online listing sector.

The new feature within Google Maps will initially list properties for sale provided by the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia and homehound.com.au, owned by Michael Hannan’s Independent Print Media Group.

Google product manager Andrew Foster wrote in a company blog post that users can enter a search that includes the words “real estate” and a suburb, and can then search through real estate listings marked on the map.

“This also means you can perform a search and see all the properties for sale close to, for example, a local school you’re interested in your kids attending. You can click on each marker and each small circle to get more detailed information about the property, including the listing agent’s website and contact details.”

“It’s also easy to refine your search further by criteria like bedrooms, bathrooms, garaging and price. And if you decide that Seaforth is more your speed, you can pan the map to another area entirely to see the listings there, and the map will automatically update, without typing anything new.”

The move could pose a challenge to the two largest online real-estate portals in Australia, realestate.com.au and domain.com.au. Rob Druitt, president of the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia, says the two sites are the company’s main competitiors.

“They are our main competitors, so anything to enhance our services is a benefit. Google have proven to be an extremely successful company, and anything that helps people search property easily is going to be a benefit to not only regular members, but the general public.”

But Simon Baker, formerly chief executive of REA Group which operated realestate.com.au, says Google Maps has a lot of work to do before it can obtain market dominance.

“You have to think about this one logically. For this to shake up the market, for it to have real impact on realestate.com.au or domain.com.au, it has to take away visitors to those sites and therefore leads, and then have agents have to stop using them. Firstly, for consumers or visitors to stop using domain.com.au or realestate.com.au, they’re going to have access to an equal number of listings on Google maps. Currently they’re not there yet.”

“I think just as agents still use print, they will continue to use domain.com.au and realestate.com.au, so I can’t see it having a financial impact on those companies. When you think it through logically, it provides another outlet for an agent, but right now I don’t see it having a major impact.”

Peter Ricci, director of the real estate industry news website Business2, agrees with Baker that Google Maps will have to cover a lot of ground before it is considered a major player.

“Any competition from a company like Google is good for the marketplace, it’s a new place for real estate agents to market, and obviously being Google it’s a pretty important player and it’s their first test in this area.”

“But agents will still go their own way. I think if it becomes popular, realestate.com.au and domain.com.au would push listings, but that remains to be seen. It’ll depend on whether the independent agents get on board. All the franchises will be on there within three or six months, but the independent agents are the key to success.”