Trade Me property's industry-owned rival says it won't be affected by 'desperate fee cutting'

Friday 1st August 2014

Trade Me Group's main rival for property listings, industry-owned realestate.co.nz, doesn't expect its "dominance" in the market to be affected by New Zealand's largest auction company cutting its fees for agents.

Wellington-based Trade Me lost market share of property listings since it tried to push through price hikes to agents starting late last year, according to a report by Craigs Investment Partners analyst Stephen Ridgewell, which showed Trade Me had 45,978 properties listed compared with its rival's 54,874 properties. However Ridgewell said Trade Me's market share should recover after it agreed to back down on the plan this week.

But realestate.co.nz chief executive Brendon Skipper, who headed up Trade Me's property unit for seven years before taking up a job with its rival in October, said the industry-owned website didn't expect to be affected by "any desperate fee cutting" by its competitor.

"Realestate.co.nz will continue to offer a low subscription price, which is around one quarter of the new rates being charged by Trade Me," Skipper said.

Shares in Trade Me slipped 0.3 percent to $3.47, having dropped 14 percent this year.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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