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Steven Cross
Online property listing sites Homesales and Thehomepage are close to launching apps, as new figures show almost half of Australians access the internet from their mobile handset.
Mobile internet subscriptions have increased by almost three million for the 12 months leading up to December 2011, increasing the total to 11 million, new data from the ABS reveals.
That’s an increase of 34 per cent over the year.
The statistics show a staggering upwards trend which proves more and more Australians are relying on mobile technology.
Rhett Dallwitz, general manager of homesales.com.au, told Real Estate Business that they’re planning to launch an app in the next few months.
“We’re looking at late April early May,” he said. “We’re going to soft launch it first, and we’ll refine it as we get customer feedback.
Thehomepage.com.au also has an app in development, with CEO Ben Stockdale admitting it’s been a difficult task.
“A lot of the development has been thinking what we’re not going to put in it,” he said.
“You need to ask what does a Smartphone user want and try to balance that against what we know our customers want. We find ourselves asking, ‘Do we really need that feature?’”
Mr Stockdale said the app is likely to be launched in the next few months.
Fellow listing portal Domain.com.au has reported almost one million downloads of its app, while other sites to have apps include realestate.com.au and realestateVIEW.com.au.
