Hywood and Catalano have launched a start-up that aims to take a hefty chunk of the Melbourne property market from established rivals Domain and realestate.com.au.
However, they are not the Hywood and Catalano you may be expecting.
School-yard friends Tom Hywood and Jordan Catalano, sons of CEO of Fairfax Media, Greg Hywood and CEO of Fairfax's real estate division, Domain, Antony Catalano, have created ApartmentDevelopments.com.au, that is aimed solely at those who want to buy off-the-plan apartments.
Hywood and Catalano senior were at lunch together when they found out about their sons' joint venture and according to Hywood junior have been supportive.
“They're as happy you can be, on a personal level they're completely supportive, on a business level they haven't told me directly but I would hope in the back of their minds they're a bit wary or nervous, that we could steal some of their market share, hopefully,” Hywood said.
The Melbourne property market has been tumultuous of late, with a group of 400 real estate agents revolting against the News Corp owned REA Group which runs realestate.com.au over the cost of digital ads.
However Hywood believes that the niche nature of ApartmentDevelopments.com.au will mean they can avoid the current tensions.
“We're rapidly closing the gap between the market leader and ourselves – as far as clients go we've got almost the entire Melbourne market wrapped up as far as the main players are concerned.”
“We work with big direct developers and your large residential agencies that deal with off-the-plan apartments and then obviously the media agencies responsible for the marketing schedules for these big projects,” Hywood said.
Another point of difference, they reckon, is the site's editorial bent. “Our site is a listed aggregator, it does showcase these projects but editorial content is also provided for people who want information on how to invest, where to invest, lifestyle and culture,” Hywood said.
From 1 October the site will kick off a marketing campaign that will encompass outdoor, print and digital platforms.
“To compete with the major players you've got to do something more,” Hywood said. “We'll have billboards in development, a print campaign and a digital campaign as well, which will increase brand recognition but hopefully spike traffic.”
The site is currently only live in Melbourne however there are plans in the works to expand to the development hubs of Sydney and Brisbane.
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