Ten Australian real estate businesses have been selected to work alongside REA Group innovators and technical specialists at the company's flagship innovation event in Melbourne in September, where their own ideas will be developed into prototypes and working solutions across a four-day sprint.
Earlier this year REA Group invited customers to submit an innovation-focused idea or business problem for the chance to take part. The program has run for 16 years, and the 2026 event marks the first time customers will formally join it.
REA Group Executive Manager Sales Gerard Connell said the calibre of submissions made narrowing the field to 10 difficult.
“Our customers are on the ground every day, they know the industry, they know their business, and they have great ideas.”
Mr Connell said REA was excited to combine its technology expertise with customer creativity and industry insight, and that pairing the company's data, artificial intelligence and innovation capability with customers' industry knowledge could fast-track practical, high-impact solutions with wider industry potential.
The problems the industry actually wants solved
The selected submissions read as a list of everyday workflow pressures rather than abstract technology concepts. They cluster around listing content, pricing conversations, rental enquiry and inspection demand, live market intelligence, and commercial documentation.
The 10 selected submissions are:
- Ray White Mildura: evidence-led listing content at the point of writing.
- PropertyCo: move listing intelligence upstream before publish.
- LJ Hooker United Group: give vendors a data-backed pricing reality check.
- My Bay Realty: see market movement as it happens.
- Stockland: continuously optimise project and listing content.
- Ray White Upper North Shore: answer rental enquiries and manage inspection demand automatically.
- CPG Estates: plot a house-and-land package.
- Metropolis: turn project profile enquiries into actionable insights.
- McDonald Partners Real Estate: turn location competition into a live market monitor.
- Ray White Commercial CSR: generate commercial information memorandums in minutes.
Why agents put their hands up
McDonald Partners Real Estate representative Marcus Salvatore said he keeps up to date with the technology and innovation shaping real estate, and that he is excited by the opportunity to collaborate, challenge ideas and potentially see his concept developed into something with wider industry impact.
Ray White Mildura will travel to Melbourne after an idea from Head of Marketing and Agent Support Sakhbir Hayer was selected. Managing Director and Chairman's Elite Sales Agent Damian Portaro said the team was proud to see an idea developed in Mildura recognised, and potentially developed into something that could help agents across Australia create smarter property marketing.
What to watch
The test for the September sprint is whether four days of concentrated work produces tools an agency can use in its own workflow, rather than concepts that stall after the event. With customer submissions now inside a program that has run for 16 years, the results will be measured against the specific problems the 10 businesses brought with them.
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