In an exciting development, realestate.com.au will this week launch the next generation of its property listing experience, with images key to this first round of enhancements.
With more properties for sale than any other platform, realestate.com.au generates over 2.4 billion image interactions from its listing pages each month.
From late September, consumers and agents will see major updates, including larger image sizes, a new immersive image tour, and an AI-driven image data feature.
REA Group Chief Product and Audience Officer, Melina Cruickshank said the enhancements are part of a 12-month rollout of realestate.com.au’s ‘NextGen listings’, which aims to deliver a more engaging and visually immersive property discovery experience.
“The next generation of property seekers expect much more immersive experiences, with imagery and video at the core of their property experience. Our latest updates, including larger dynamic hero images and AI-enhanced viewing, will meet these expectations while delivering fresh value for agents.”
One key addition is the new ‘Tour the Property’ feature, available exclusively to Premiere+ customers. This feature is designed to enhance user engagement with property listings by offering a more immersive media experience. User testing suggests that ‘Tour the Property’ will significantly increase the number of people who view every image on a listing. An AI-enhanced image viewer also leverages machine learning models to detect and highlight key features in property images, providing users with a more detailed and streamlined viewing experience.
“Our first NextGen listing release sees a larger dynamic hero image, a Tour the Property feature,
an AI-enhanced image viewer with higher resolution photography and the addition of new ML
models into our core experience.
“realestate.com.au listings will undergo a big evolution over the next year. The changes launching this week are just the beginning. The realestate.com.au NextGen listing of the future has been designed to inspire much deeper discovery and connection, and we’re excited to begin rolling out the next era of digital property experiences,” said Ms Cruickshank.
With over 12 million Australians visiting realestate.com.au in August, the platform continues to set audience records. Ms Cruickshank explained that this new product launch aligns with REA’s broader focus on consumer audience segmentation, personalisation, and membership.
“Our members are 4.8 times more likely to submit enquiries that result in high-intent leads for our customers. Our homepage delivers over 7.5 million personalised recommendations to consumers every day, helping them pick up where they left off on their property journey.”
She also pointed out the success of realEstimate, a feature that allows users to track property valuations. “This ten-year focus on personalisation has been transformational for our consumer platforms. It has allowed us to turbocharge new features such as realEstimate, which, despite being only two years old, now has over 4 million Australians tracking property valuations via realestate.com.au.”
As realestate.com.au continues its rollout of NextGen listings, users can expect more updates over the coming year, designed to enhance the overall property browsing experience.
