Anthony Catalano says there is only room at the top for one in real estate, and it’s not Domain
Antony Catalano says the real estate listings business he once led, Domain, is ‘in trouble’, bleeding staff and failing to compete with market leader REA Group.
Domain is a “business in trouble’’ which is bleeding staff, with a “poor board” and dwindling market share, property identity and competitor Antony Catalano says.
Speaking to Melbourne billionaire Alex Waislitz after the annual meeting of the latter’s Thorney Opportunities listed vehicle, Mr Catalano said that agents outside of the Sydney and Melbourne markets were dropping off the Domain real estate portal.
Mr Catalano’s View Media Group, which is backed by ANZ and Mr Waislitz, operates view.com.au, which offers a “freemium” real estate listing service.
He said View was not seeking to compete with REA group’s Realestate.com.au, which was the clear market leader, with the industry moving towards a “one-portal market, much the same as exists in the employment category or the car category’’.
REA group is majority owned by News Corp, which publishes The Australian.
View offers free house sale listings but Mr Catalano said it was not seeking to take on REA, but took a took a “broader view” of the property market, aiming to “own a consumer’’ across different products such as mortgages and insurance.
“I think that View Media poses a very serious threat to the Domain group,’’ Mr Catalano said.
“If I start with the fact that seven of my former executive leadership team members that took that company from $200m to a $2.5bn float, are now working at View Media Group, you can see there’s a huge exodus of talent that’s come out of that business.
“One of the major criticisms of Domain these days – no relationships, poor management team, increasingly they’ve got a poor board, a lack of experience.
“I think that that’s a business in trouble’’.
Mr Catalano said overseas markets had shown that, like with employment and vehicle sales, real estate listings tended towards a one portal market.
And while there were an increasing number of properties on the market due to the “scare factor’’ of rising interest rates at the moment, longer term Mr Catalano said his business stood to benefit from Domain’s frailty.
“If you look at our model, what does it do? It creates enormous pricing problems for Domain which already only attracts 15 to 20 per cent of inquiries nationally,’’ he said.
“They’ve got some very serious problems emerging and how do you defend a business that only attracts 15 to 20 per cent of inquiries nationally and is trying to price itself on par with REA, which is a business that works and which all of the industry has to use?’’
Mr Catalano was chief executive of Domain when it listed in 2017 but left shortly after.
At its recent annual meeting Domain said it had experienced a strong recovery in new “for sale” listings in the high value Sydney and Melbourne markets “which accelerated over the course of the (first) quarter’’.
“However national volumes were negative, impacted by weakness in Queensland and Western Australia.’’
Domain said it was “confident of resuming EBITDA margin expansion in FY24, supported by improving listings, successful price increase, take up of new depth contracts and products ... and continued cost restraint, balanced with investment in our marketplace strategy.’’
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