Federal Elections are a notorious handbrake to property sales, yet a first-to-market digital platform is helping vendors in the Inner West defy slow market conditions.

Ben Ayers, Project Sales Consultant from Marrickville-based Raine & Horne Projects, was able to sell a stunning oversized two-bedroom apartment in a high-quality new residential development, in popular St Peters, utilising his firm’s digital technology platform Amplify. A first-to-market technology, Amplify uses artificial intelligence (A.I.) and social media to engage with active and passive buyers.

The apartment at 202/38 Princes Highway, St Peters was sold to an owner-occupier for $920,000, within three weeks of hitting the market for sale, and for a marketing spend of just $1,300, according to Mr Ayers. Currently, days on market for properties selling in St Peters is 37 days, according to RP Data.

“Sales volumes have been falling since 2016 for general real estate businesses, while days on market have been increasing, but the real estate industry is continuing to show its resilience against a broad range of distractions, including the Federal Election, the banking royal commission and economic uncertainty,” said Angus Raine, Executive Chairman, Raine & Horne. 

“The industry must adapt to new technologies such as Amplify and how we engage with consumers,” Mr Raine said. “Amplify is putting our agents and their listings ahead of the curve, which is helping them sell faster.”

Since launching Amplify 12 months ago, the technology has been used to market over 8,000 properties listed for sale with Raine & Horne, which is well over double that of the global Superbrand’s nearest competitors.

Traffic to the Raine & Horne website has increased by over 1,100%, while over six million Australians have engaged with the webpages of individual agents and spent an average of more than two minutes viewing properties listed on its websites.

Mr Ayers, added, “Amplify helped put the St Peter’s apartment in front of more eyeballs and despite the softer market conditions, and for a relatively affordable marketing spend, we were able to find a buyer.” More than 18,400 people saw the property online through Amplify, including the buyer, an owner-occupier, while the listing achieved a clickthrough rate of 11%, which compares favourably to the industry average of 1%.