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ISSUE 22
WHAT’S INSIDE 2-3
Market: Navigating rate rises and the winter ahead
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Innovation: The new technology transforming house inspections
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Social: Pride in the legal industry and why diversity and inclusion are so important
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Industry: PEXA to acquire up to 25% of AI software leader Elula
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It’s not all doom and gloom in property By Jarrod McAleese
For many Australians, the feeling is that we are entering uncertain financial times. This notion is illustrated by the latest Westpac-Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment – which reported a 4.5% drop in June, to 86.4. Figures of less than 100 indicate pessimism among consumers, while a score of more than 100 is representative optimism.
Opportunity awaits Rich Harvey, Buyer’s Agent and CEO, Propertybuyer.com believes the outlook isn’t all negative.
“It’s not all doom and gloom, though that is the perception currently. For homeowners, gains made in property values over the past two years have Westpac’s Chief Economist Bill been extraordinary with a 20 to 30% Evans described current levels as uptick across most major capital cities. being comparable with the worst of COVID-19, the global financial crisis, the Even if national home values were to retract by 10 per cent (something deep recession of the early nineties, that’s rarely, if ever, happened), the slowdown in the mid-eighties and homeowners are still way ahead. the recession of the early eighties. Unsurprisingly, the main factor driving the dip in confidence was inflation. In the latest survey round, 60% of respondents talked about inflation, compared to an average of 12% normally.
“Their equity is hundreds of thousands more than it was just two years ago – and this will be the safety net when making financial decisions in 2022 and beyond.
And with the Reserve Bank increasing interest rates by 50 basis points, taking the cash rate target to 0.85 per cent, the unease has only intensified.
“For people looking to enter the market, depending on your position, you can actually view today’s market as a window of opportunity. If you can buy while others are panicking, that’s a big positive. The majority of people will sit back and watch – but the smart buyers are still looking.”
Prospective homebuyers and mortgagees have been following the latest developments with bated breath. But is there a silver lining amongst the clouds? 2
Though not traditionally thought of as a property “high season”, Harvey explains that there are benefits to playing in the market through winter.
Advice for young buyers
Buying your first home can be a daunting experience – but Harvey has some words of wisdom for young “Winter can be a good time to sell your consumers. property due to the lack of listings “You can’t pick exactly when the – whereas in Spring, there’s lots of market will bottom out, so make buyers and sellers – and more choice your move and as long you’re in it for consumers. for the long term, you’ll be ok. If you want to buy in a certain suburb but “Ultimately, my advice is to buy when can’t afford it, rent there but buy an you’re ready to do so. Whether the market is up, down or sideways, there investment property somewhere within your price range – it’s all about is always value on hand. being in the market.” “Given the current circumstances, And while RBA Governor has flagged investors will receive great returns as the rental market is extremely strong – further rate rises in 2022, there is light at the end of the tunnel for today and it’s a good time to ride the yield curve tomorrow’s homebuyers. on the way up.”
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The new way to inspect property By Jarrod McAleese
Technology has truly transformed consumer habits, behaviours and desires. As Josh Callaghan, CEO, Little Hinges explains: “today, we can order food from our couch, organise for someone to pick us up wherever we are in the world and watch any movie we want on any device, whenever we choose – our expectations have changed, and we crave flexibility.”
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Meeting property buyer and seller needs Little Hinges was developed in response to COVID-19, with the opportunity being that a pandemic which restricted access to physical property would create high demand for virtual tours. And since its launch in 2020, the technology has helped more than 3 million people inspect property digitally – growing to become the largest such platform in the country. “We’d discovered that virtual tours were the hottest piece of digital content in the purchase journey of a property. Users were spending more than 3 minutes on average clicking through houses, they were coming back multiple times and they were sharing the links with friends and family.” And while the unforeseen circumstances of the past two years helped start the fire, Callaghan believes the spark was present long before the arrival of COVID-19. “The megatrends underlying the demand for digital inspections has been there for years, even before COVID-19. Consumers expect immediate access to the things they are interested in, and they expect to be able to do that from their own device, wherever they want, whenever they want.
“In fact, a study by Zoom Qualtrics in 2021 found that 57% of Australians want to be able to purchase property using a hybrid approach of digital and in-person inspections. “COVID was simply the enabler that forced more asset owners to open their properties digitally.” The next innovative steps With the Little Hinges platform now serving more than 300,000 unique users each month, Callaghan says the journey will continue by finding further opportunities to enhance the buyer and seller experience. “We’re really excited about launching our platform globally in July this year and are working hard on building out the user interfaces that serve our key customer segments. We’re doing some really interesting projects across the country and continue to push the boundaries of 3D space capture. “Ultimately though, it’s about the growth of our core business which is measured by the number of properties we have on our platform. We’ll continue to invest in activities that increase the number of properties that have been digitised to better serve consumers and deliver commercial value for property owners.”
“The property industry had enforced a friction point for consumers by insisting on physical only inspections – when consumers clearly want both options. 5
The importance of fostering a workplace that is diverse and inclusive By Kat Leonard
In recognition of Pride Month, we spoke to Sheetal Deo, Founder of The Diversity Collective and Principal of Shakti Legal about the current state of LGBQTI+ in the legal industry, her advice on inclusive practices as well as what Pride means to her.
Could you please tell us a bit about yourself, your background and what lead you to establish The Diversity Collective? I’m a first-generation Canadian. My parents are 5th or 6th generation Fijians and we’re descendants of the Girmitiyas, or indentured labourers who left India in the middle to late 19th century to serve as laborers in the British colonies. I generally dislike labels (labels are for food, not people), but for the sake of societal constructs, I am an able-bodied cis-gendered queer woman of colour. Before beginning my legal career, I undertook a Bachelor of Arts degree with a focus on philosophy and political science (race and gender studies, identity politics, etc.). While I took most of these courses, ‘for fun,’ they have formed the basis of my passion for equity and inclusion and underpin much of what I do, including how I do it.
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Long story short, I pursued a career in law because I wanted money, power and privilege. I soon realised that what I had been driven by wasn’t aligned to my values.
How do you see the current state of LGBTQI+ inclusion in the legal profession?
I think organisations like the LGBTI Legal Service and Pride in Law have been incredible in fostering the With that sobering realisation came inclusion of LGBTIQA+ people in the another, more optimistic revelation – legal profession. Where Pride in Law the money, power and privilege also provided me an opportunity, a platform, has created a space for members of the legal community who identify as to leverage what was available to me, LGBTIQA+, the LGBTI legal service to become an advocate and help has created space for LGBTIQA+ bridge the access to justice gap identifying community members to on a larger scale. So, I created my own social enterprise law seek (and receive) legal assistance. firm, built on a low-bono Both have advanced the inclusion of model, with opportunities LGBTIQA+ people through legislative for eligible clients to and policy changes. I’m honoured to ‘pay what they can,’ be members of both organisations and for legal services. continue to work and contribute to both in a volunteer capacity. At the same time, I saw another What do you think is the impact of gap in the diversity inclusion, from the individual and/or and inclusion space the businesses perspective? between people who wanted to do the right We hear about the business case thing but didn’t know how of diversity all the time, but without and people who were tired inclusion, the business case fails. We from the emotional labour of cannot learn (and benefit) from the educating others at their own diversity of thought, experience, and expense. I started The Diversity backgrounds of people unless we Collective as a way to bridge create a space that is safe and inclusive that education gap and bring an for people to share those diverse intersectional lens (and framework) thoughts, views and experiences. to diversity and inclusion discussions The ‘add diversity and stir,’ approach within my networks. doesn’t work. Businesses and organisations that adopt that approach
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perpetuate a self-fulfilling prophecy that “diversity doesn’t work,” in their organisations. When in truth, the issue is that the organisation is not ready, receptive or inclusive enough. Insofar as the tangible benefits of inclusion, the Diversity Council of Australia commissioned a study* mapping the state of inclusion in the Australian workforce, which reported that workers in inclusive teams are: • 11 times more lightly to be highly effective than those in non-inclusive teams • 10 times more likely to be very satisfied [at work] • 10 times more likely to be innovative • 6 times more likely to provide excellent customer service • 4 times more likely to work extra hard • 5 times less likely to experience discrimination and/or harassment at work • 4 times less likely to leave their job in the next 12 months • 4 times less likely to feel work has a negative or very negative impact on their mental health *Report: 2021-200 Inclusion@Work Index, Diversity Council of Australia
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Do you have any practical advice for firms on LGBTQI+ inclusive practices? It can be tough as a sole practitioner or small practice to keep up with the discourse in the diversity and inclusion space, let alone implement ‘best,’ or better practices. Even when we know it’s the right thing to do, we might not know how to do it. Or, we have limited resources and capacity to do it. There are a number of small actions you can take to be more inclusive including: 1. Use inclusive language: For example, ‘Dear colleagues’ rather than ‘sir/ madam’ or use ‘everyone’ or ‘team’ rather than ‘ladies and gentlemen’. Pride in Law, a National non-political LGBTIQ+ Law Association has created a list of useful resources that you can access here. 2. Diversify your networks by looking outside your ‘usual’ networks and amplifying underrepresented voices, when sourcing presenters or speakers for events, or referring work. 3. Visibility matters. Use visual representations to demonstrate your support for diversity and your allyship.
What does Pride mean to you? Pride for me has become an opportunity to learn more about the intersecting identities within the rainbow community and how I can be a better ally to those with experiences and identities different to my own. After all, the rights I enjoy today are due to the sacrifices by those who came before me. They had different experiences and identities too, but they had the magnanimity to make things better for more than just themselves. That’s true allyship. That’s Pride. Because unless it’s equitable for all, it’s not equitable at all. For more information about The Diversity Collective please visit https:// thediversitycollective.org/
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PEXA to acquire up to 25% of AI software leader Elula PEXA Group Limited (PEXA), has confirmed that its data and analytics business, PEXA Insights, is making its second strategic investment to acquire an interest of up to 25% in Elula – an Australian artificial intelligence (AI) technology company. As part of this initiative, PEXA is also entering into a strategic partnership agreement with Elula. Elula enables businesses to make smarter decisions through the intelligent use of data. Together with PEXA’s data and analytics capabilities, this investment enables a more holistic view of critical lending and refinance consumer behaviour, further amplifying PEXA’s capabilities for financial institutions. Founded in 2017, Elula has developed proprietary technology drawing on AI and machine learning that specialises in customer retention and customer acquisition. Elula has experienced compelling growth with strong early customer adoption of Elula’s
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signature products, providing financial institutions a positive impact on customer engagement and satisfaction through: • Sticky: AI-based software that predicts which home loan customers will refinance or sell their property within the next three months; and • Nudge: predicts which financial institution customers are most likely to acquire additional products and services from.
The partnership between PEXA and Elula will enrich the unique and timely property data that PEXA Insights is already unlocking for the property industry. This is specifically relevant for the Australian banking sector where Elula currently provides key AI products to banks, credit unions, mutuals and non-bank lenders. Many of these financial institutions are existing PEXA customers, offering considerable system efficiencies for PEXA’s financial institution and banking customers, which is one of the four key pillars of the PEXA Insights’ strategy. Scott Butterworth, PEXA’s Chief Data and Analytics Officer, said: “As PEXA continues to build its reputation as a trusted leader and resource for robust, real-time property data, it is critical we continue to identify opportunities that extend our offering and enhance the property ecosystem to best meet the needs of Australian consumers. We are truly excited to be partnering with some of Australia’s leading data scientists at Elula. PEXA’s
strong financial institution network, credibility, and additional market-wide refinancing data, can support Elula in gaining greater access and conversion with the major banks, as well as strengthen Elula’s product suite.” Josh Shipman, co-founder and coCEO of Elula, said: “Our goal, since we started, has been to make a meaningful and positive difference to businesses through the use of AI. We’re excited by what the PEXA partnership will bring to further achieving this goal. Elula is delighted to be partnering with PEXA and this investment will allow us to accelerate our strategic growth plans by bringing new products to market.” Sarah Russell, co-founder and coCEO of Elula, said: “This investment by PEXA brings together two leading data businesses. It will allow us to further enhance Elula’s proven product offering and develop new ways to add value for customers in an everchanging environment.” The investment is expected to complete by 30 June 2022.
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Do you have feedback, a question or a story pitch? Get in touch with us at industry@pexa.com.au
