Online property start-up GroupBuyer aims to shake up the real estate market by offering discounts to first home buyers and investors.
“For decades we’ve been selling real estate one property at a time but for the past two years GroupBuyer has been building a unique software platform that enables buyers to be ‘grouped’ to leverage the buying power of each other to pick up a ‘bulk-buy’ deal,” GroupBuyer founder and chief executive Ben Daniel said.
“This is a game-changer for the investor and first home buyer markets. For the first time in Australia, home buyers – our members – can now benefit from fellow homebuyers (members) rather than competing with them.”
Membership to the platform is free.
GroupBuyer groups prospective buyers with similar buyers and negotiates a group purchase price with developers for blocks of land, off-plan apartments or finished apartments. These groups are formed online and opportunities are created by GroupBuyer and offered direct to its members.
For example, if a developer has five apartments on a plan for $1 million each they offer GroupBuyer a 10 per cent discount. Once five buyers in the GroupBuyer platform agree to purchase an apartment each – or perhaps more than one – then the sale is agreed to, and the saving passed onto the platform members in the form of a straight discount or cash rebate on settlement of up to 25 per cent.
After more than two decades in the real estate business, including senior roles with McGrath, First National, and Ray White, Ben Daniel has the long-standing relationships with developers and agents across the country that will make this model work.
“As well as real estate I have always been interested in e-commerce and after doing some research discovered that there was no one utilising digital technology to capture group buying discounts in the property market – and so GroupBuyer was born,” Ben Daniel said.
“It’s really just one more step from buying off a plan but no-one else has taken that step yet until now. It’s taken two years of hard work – and a bit of trial and error like all start-ups – but we know we have the model and platform where buyers get ahead faster.”
For the platform’s launch this week, GroupBuyer has properties from established developers Bensons Property Group, Samma Property Group and Trinity Constructions via project marketing agents ‘Link International’.
For most Australians, spending $1 means earning $1.50 pre-tax. The same principle applies to saving money – if you save $1 you’ve actually saved from having to earn $1.50. The member community at GroupBuyer understands how critical it is to save as much money as possible at the time of purchase.
So, the more members each community of buyers has, the more negotiating power it has.
“This is your chance to break into the property market for less. Your chance to finally benefit from other buyers rather than competing with them. Saving home buyers as much money as possible at time of purchase is what we’re all about. Until now, Australian buyers have had limited negotiating power when purchasing a property but with GroupBuyer you’ll never pay full price again,” Ben Daniel said.
Source: GroupBuyer
