PHOTO: There is rarely a dull day in real estate. From mergers and acquisitions, record sales and the AI boom, 2023 has once again been a year for the record books. ELITE AGENT
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- Owen Wilson, CEO, REA Group
An extremely tight market, characterised by low listings, made for a more challenging year for REA Group. While profits were down slightly on last year, revenue did increase one per cent to $1,183 million in the 2022-2023 financial year, under the stewardship of Owen WIlson. Other highlights included acquiring 100 per cent ownership of Campaign Agent, identifying ways to help ease the rental and housing crisis, and being named one of Australia’s best workplaces.
- Melina Cruickshank, Chief Product and Audience Officer, REA Group
After taking an expanded role in REA Group in 2022, Melina Cruickshank certainly didn’t rest on her laurels this year, spearheading the group’s Agency Marketplace as a core part of its value proposition for agents. Real estate platform realestate.com.au also launched a suite of AI-powered enhancements, including a Generative AI ChatGPT integration for its ‘Suggested Properties’ feature. The group has also continued to build on the consumer intelligence it delivers to agents, with the Property Seeker Survey revealing consumers’ top pain point was not having prices displayed on listings.
- Antony Catalano, Executive Chairman, Australian Community Media and View Media Group
One of the biggest movers in this year’s list, ‘The Cat’, as he’s known by many in the industry, made plenty of moves in 2023. The biggest of those being the launch of View Media Group’s new property portal, view.com.au, in September. The portal allows consumers access to a complete view of real estate across the country, irrespective of whether a property is for sale or not. When launching the platform, Catalano said the plan was to “create a digital real estate superstore under the new View brand that will play in the $300 billion adjacency categories rather than solely focus on the $1 billion of digital property advertising”. View Media Group owns lead generation platform The Today Business, has minority stakes in AI startup Propic and utilities platform Beevo. The Cat, who previously served as CEO of Domain Group, purchased regional media group Australian Community Media from Nine in 2019 with backing from investor Alex Waislitz.
- Anna Neelagama, CEO, Real Estate Institute of Australia
At the helm of the nation’s peak real estate body since August 2020, Anna Neelagama has this year helped lead the REIA to become a highly respected advocacy body that has the ear of the government at both federal and state level. This year, the REIA was vocal about potential solutions to the housing crisis, including phasing out stamp duty, getting more rentals onto the market, encouraging home ownership and focusing on family investing. A strong leader with a customer-centric approach, Anna will also head the industry body’s all-female leadership team, along with Leanne Pilkington and Hannah Gill, in 2024.
- Jason Pellegrino, CEO, Domain Group
Domain Group head honcho Jason Pellegrino labelled the 2022-2023 financial year as the “most challenging” ever seen, with reduced revenue and profits. But there were still plenty of highlights under his guidance, including significant updates to the Domain App, like a dynamically integrated map and list view experience. Domain also launched a new AI-powered tool, called LeadScope, that helps agents identify properties in their CRM that are likely to come to market in the next year.
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