ISCOVER
As part of its brand transformation, major brokerage Aussie is deepening its engagement with the real estate agent community to support Australians in buying property.
As part of its transition to a full-service property ecosystem under its new Find. Buy. Own. mantra, brokerage brand Aussie has said it is “doubling down on its relationship with the real estate community” by providing more agents with tools to list properties for free and find qualified buyers.
Speaking to The Adviser about the brokerage’s plans for this financial year (FY26), Sebastian Watkins, chief operating officer at Lendi Group (the parent company of Aussie), said the brand had been working to provide agents with a new tool to connect qualified buyers with sellers (and vice versa). He said this will be a key focus over the next year, alongside its buyer’s agent and conveyancing services.
“We think there’s a really exciting opportunity to form a fierce alliance,” Watkins said.
“We have a large customer base, a trusted brand, a national presence, and a best-in-class platform. Real estate agents, in turn, have a lot of things that are complementary to that asset pool. They have customers looking to buy and are always seeking new vendor leads.
“And so one of the other big focus points for us in the forward 12 months is deepening our relationship with the agent community and giving them the ability to or ask for the ability to play in our new sort of mutually respective areas.”
Watkins stressed that Aussie is not entering the real estate agency business, instead remaining “ruthlessly focused on achieving our mission in home loans”. However, he explained that to excel in home loans, forming deeper, more integrated relationships with the agency space was crucial.
“Referral agreements have been going on with real estate agents forever and a day… but when you think about real estate agent referrals into broker, there’s a misalignment around value. Real estate agents don’t really care about the $1,000 referral fee, they want to win the next $20,000 commission. And we can give them that through the Aussie platform,” Watkins said.
“We’re taking a national, product-led approach to that space, and connecting mortgages and property right at the middle; having the real estate agents and the brokers both playing to their respective strengths. But we’re doing it in a much more unified way, where you’ve got data flowing freely between systems, you’ve got common customer visibility about where they’re up to, and ultimately, it’s a much more cohesive experience.
“It’s just win-win, in both our respective games.”
Aussie partners with One Agency
In one of its first new real estate agency partnerships, Aussie has now become the official home loan partner of real estate network One Agency and will provide its 750 members across 122 offices with its new ‘Aussie for Agents’ platform.
The platform enables agents to list off-market, pre-market, and on-market properties, including auctions on Aussie’s Property Marketplace, while integrating leads into their customer relationship management (CRM) platform.
It also connects One Agency clients with loan support from Aussie brokers and access to Aussie’s new bridging loan solution, designed to help customers with a smooth transition into their next home.
Aussie will also soon launch its new Seller Assist service, which will support agents in identifying and securing qualified, ready-to-move vendor leads and appraisal opportunities through Aussie’s network of more than 1,300 brokers and 220 stores nationwide.
Rhett Dallwitz, Aussie’s general manager of agent services, said the partnership would enable One Agency buyers and vendors to “transact more efficiently”.
“Our zero-cost listings offer on Aussie’s Property Search will help One Agency agents connect with more potential buyers, by marketing their listings to millions of Australians, bringing much-needed competition to a market facing escalating online advertising costs,” Dallwitz said.
Mindy Powell-Hodges, head of global membership at One Agency, said the Aussie partnership was “game-changing” for its agents, suggesting that the brokerage was “one of Australia’s most trusted household name brands”.
“This collaboration gives our network access to an integrated property ecosystem that includes a VPA-free listing platform connecting our agents to high-intent buyers and vendors across the country,” Powell-Hodges said.
“It’s exactly the kind of innovative partnership our agents need to stay competitive and deliver exceptional value to their clients.”
The One Agency partnership follows Aussie’s recent launch of a major new brand platform and national campaign for Find. Buy. Own., which is now running across television, Broadcast Video on Demand (BVOD), outdoor, radio, and digital.
Aside from real estate partnerships, Aussie is also focusing on rolling out agentic AI into its operations this financial year, off-loading significant “cognitive load” and the burden of “administrative computation” to an AI agent.
[Related: Aussie to roll out agentic AI]
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