Agents in Australia have become so incensed at rising fees charged by portals that they are launching their own portal imminently.

Called Squiiz, it will be 100% industry owned and operated, and already has the backing of agents who between them have 65% of the listings market.

Crucially, it also has the backing of the Certified Practising Real Estate Agents Group, which decided to shelve its own portal plans.

Mike Green, managing director of Harcourts, who is currently in this country on a fact-finding mission about the UK market, told Eye: “The existing portals are so arrogant. They keep hiking their prices. They don’t listen to their customers.

“So, about a year ago, three of us got together to put a plan together. If there are more than a few people in the planning stage, that’s when it all falls apart.”

Green’s wife and colleague Irene, with him in the UK, told Eye: “The current portals are robbing agents blind.”

Australia’s biggest portal is realestate.com.au which is majority owned by Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper group.

It is followed by domain.co.au – also owned by a media group – and Reiwa.com.au, which is owned by the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia.

Squiiz has both similarities and great differences with OnTheMarket, to be launched in January by Agents’ Mutual.

With Squiiz, the emphasis is on launching first – after ensuring that the technology runs well and will offer major opposition – and then building up membership.

Currently, there are 12 shareholders – but representing between them the lion’s share of listings.

While 12 sounds small, one of the shareholders is Independent Real Estate Network of Excellence, which represents a group of some 600 independents, while Harcourts itself has some 400 offices. Other shareholders include RE/MAX and Century 21.

Unlike OnTheMarket, there will be no restrictions as to where else agents may advertise. Green says this would be illegal in Australia, where there are tight controls over anti-competitive behaviour.

Green said: “I don’t think anyone will be pulling off the other portals. However, the immediate aim is that we make Squiiz a very serious contender.

“The longer-term aim is to reinvest all profits into marketing and technology, and to make it the number one portal.”

Unlike OnTheMarket, Squiiz will be free – but agents will be charged to display pictures and their own logos.

Also in contrast to OnTheMarket, the launch of Squiiz – due on October 15 – has been a rapid process, with most fund-raising being done post-launch, rather than before.

The name of the site was unveiled only in August and rounds of meetings with agents have been held since. A meeting in Brisbane attracted over 400.

While Australia is far larger than the UK, there are just 11,000 offices. The aim of Squiiz is to get one-third of them on board.

Another big difference is that in Australia, vendors theoretically pay all marketing costs upfront – both newspaper and portal advertising costs.

But, said Irene Green, in practice most independents find it difficult to get costs paid upfront: “One way or other, it’s the agent who pays, and we have to stop agents being robbed.”

So, will Squiiz succeed?

As with OnTheMarket, opinions seem split and the trade press has been following the story with huge interest. On September 11, a poll by Property Observer resulted in a very narrow “no”.

The Greens have been in the UK to see whether they want to launch Harcourts – a highly successful franchising company with over 780 offices in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, China, South Africa and the US – in the UK.

They have been taking soundings from a number of sources, including the NAEA, Peter Rollings of Marsh & Parsons, Winkworth, and Sean Newman. They also had a meeting with Eye editor Rosalind Renshaw.