Real Commercial launches new site

Well there you go, after a few days of telling you all realcommercial.com.au would be launching a new site (because let’s face it the old one was a dog) they have launched a nice clean style site. Not much in the way of design but the search is a huge improvement. It is still a bit of a pain because there are so many options to consider with commercial properties – especially for people like myself tuned to searching residential listings, as it is a bit of a dedicated effort. This is not to say they have done a bad job, which they haven’t, is is clean a crisp.

I also received a press release telling me how far in front (using REA”s preferred research firm NielsonNet Ratings), which indicated a substantial lead over their rivals (more than 3 times), which amazes me really as Fairfax (Domain) has always been the dominant player in commercial listings in traditional press (and still is), just goes to show, dropping the ball early can be costly, even for the big boys!.

The site has still to integrate the listings from propertylook with brokers such as Colliers International, CB Richard Ellis, Jones Lang LaSalle and Knight Frank to come into play with their listings. As for their main competitor domain commercial, which again is aa good a site as this new one, so it seems as far as design and usability they are both on par.
There was an article in the Financial Review about this new site yesterday – more of a press release than an article (are there any real reporters these days?) .

However, I must give the AFR a slap on the back, they do seem to write good even balanced stories – even on their own companies rivals – which is definitely not the case with News Ltd who always seem to forget rivals (sometimes bigger ones) in their articles.