Real estate sites have experienced a record-breaking month in March 2015 with a category growth record. Both realestate.com.au and Domain set all-time unique audience highs, as revealed in the latest Nielsen Online Ratings figures. With a category growth of 25% and over a million additional people viewing these sites since March 2014, the spike points to a mounting interest in the real estate sector for Australians.
Realestate.com.au reached a unique audience of over 4 million people for the first time ever on the back of a 15 pe rcent increase from February. Total unique audience for the period was 4,003,000, with an increase of 656,000 when compared with March 2014.
Likewise, Domain experienced an all-time high of 2,460,000 in March, a 38 per cent increase in audience since February and an additional 966,000 people when compared to March 2014. OnTheHouse.com.au also saw a large audience increase of 58 per cent from 528,000 to 832,000.
Commenting on the results, Monique Perry, head of media at Nielsen said: “Real estate site audiences have well and truly exploded in the past 12 months, and March has seen both realestate.com.au and Domain reach an all-time high. This reflects Australia’s real estate obsession, as well as the ongoing leadership these sites demonstrate in delivering on customer experience.”
Similarly, hotels and hotel booking sites have grown 14 per cent year on year to a category unique audience of 4,561,000 people during March. Significantly, Trivago achieved a 57 per cent audience lift compared to February and a 241 per cent increase since March 2014. Nielsen advertising expenditure estimates show that Trivago has been the largest advertiser in the category over the past 12 months, with the site doubling its average monthly advertising expenditure from December 2014 to February 2015 when compared to the 9 months before it. Other notable audience spikes in Online Ratings include AirBnB with a 51 per cent increase, Agoda with 39 per cent increase, and Hotels.com with an increase of 30 per cent.
The current events and global news sub-category saw a boost in unique audience figures of 606,000 people from February, with some changes in rankings in both the top five and top ten.
“News remains number one, closely followed by SMH, however there are some ranking changes in March, with Ninemsn overtaking the Daily Mail in the top five, The Telegraph moving up one place and BBC returning to the Top 10” said Perry.
