Fairfax Media-owned Domain will launch Domain Insure, a joint venture with insurance specialist Envest, as it targets a 1.5% share of the home-and-contents and insurance market over the next five years.
The new building, house, landlord, and car insurance business, set for a soft launch in December and expected to be fully operational by February, is part of Domain's plan to be a whole-of-property life-cycle business. The property-classifieds business will hold a 70% stake of the new venture, while a minority 25% stake will be owned by Envest and the remaining 5% will be held by key management.
“We're filling out that ambition for Domain to be the place you go to for all of your property needs,” Domain chief executive Antony Catalano told
The Australian Financial Review. “Insurance is one of the more exciting adjacencies in this business because for us we've got so many closely related touch points to insurance. People who look at the Domain website, over four million visiting every month, have a two to three times higher propensity to take out insurance than other consumers.”
Search and compare product listings for Home and Contents Insurance from specialty market providers here
“We've now moved to the stage where not only do we have the audience in a digital environment, we're working with them through their mortgage and at the point of settlement we can sell them this product,” Robert Towey, Domain’s director of transactions, told
AFR. “The model we're going with, being an underwriting agency, allows us to partner with an insurer and build a product and service proposition that aligns with our understanding of the Domain audience. From the insurance point of view, I get a better understanding of the data Domain has and I'm able to build a customised product that can be delivered through Domain.”
Domain Insure is the latest addition to Domain's growing portfolio of investments that can leverage the company's core listing operations. The company owns mortgage broking service Domain Loan Finder, utilities-connections business Compare and Connect, inspection check-in and management service Homepass, home-improvement business One Flare, data service Pricefinder, and customer relationship-management tool MyDesktop.
The launch of the new venture comes as Fairfax Media, publisher of
AFR, prepares to spin off Domain. The publisher will retain 60% of Domain, while the remaining 40% will go to existing shareholders.
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