Domain was Australia's #2 property portal. Then a US corporation bought it for A$3 billion. Your property data is now owned by CoStar Group, a NASDAQ-listed American company. Proplo is Australian-built, Australian-owned, and 100% free.
In August 2025, CoStar Group (NASDAQ: CSGP) completed its A$3 billion acquisition of Domain Holdings Australia. Domain was delisted from the ASX. Your property data platform is now owned by an American corporation headquartered in Arlington, Virginia.
Domain's annual revenue — almost entirely from charging Australian real estate agents for advertising. Agents pass these costs on to sellers through higher commissions. When you pay 2.5% commission on your home sale, a big chunk goes straight to Domain.
Domain's property data products — Pricefinder, Domain Insight — charge agents and consumers thousands of dollars per year for access to suburb analytics, sales history, and property valuations. Information about your own neighbourhood costs money.
When Proplo applied for Domain's public API to power free property tools for Australians, Domain rejected us. Their data governance team called us "high commercial risk" and "a substitute for Domain solutions." They'd rather protect their revenue than help consumers.
CoStar's CEO Andy Florance said the quiet part loud: the Australian market has been "dominated by an intention to extract value rather than deliver it." He was describing Domain's own business before he bought it. Now CoStar plans to "deliver more, for less" — by extracting value differently.
REA Group (Domain's main competitor) increased agent advertising prices by 14% in 2026 alone. Domain follows the same playbook. Agents have no alternative, so they pay — and pass the cost to you. Australian sellers fund a duopoly that gives them back very little.
| Feature | Domain (CoStar Group) | Proplo |
|---|---|---|
| Property valuations | Paid — via Pricefinder or Domain Insight subscriptions | Free — for every property, always |
| Suburb analytics | Partial free, full data requires paid subscription | Free — median prices, growth, demographics, trends |
| Sales history | Limited free, full history paywalled | Free — complete recent sales data from government records |
| Stamp duty calculator | Available (free) | Free — all states, auto-calculated |
| Rental yield estimates | Requires subscription | On the roadmap — free when it lands |
| Tax & depreciation | Not available | On the roadmap — free when it lands |
| Agent matching | Agent advertising model — agents who pay the most get the most visibility | Free — matched by performance, location, and specialisation. Not by ad spend. |
| Cost to sellers | $0 to browse, but agents pass $15K–$50K/yr portal costs through in commission | Free to research your home — your agent lists for a flat $300, not thousands baked into commission |
| Cost to agents | $15,000–$50,000+/year in listing fees and advertising | $300 per listing (until sold), plus optional $149/$499 tools. No mandatory ad spend. |
| Data ownership | Owned by CoStar Group Inc., a US NASDAQ-listed corporation (HQ: Arlington, Virginia) | Australian-built. Government data sources that nobody can gatekeep or take away. |
| Revenue model | Advertising — agents pay for visibility regardless of whether your home sells | A flat $300 listing fee + optional agent tools. No commission, no ad-spend war, no cut of your sale. |
| Consumer alignment | Domain makes money from agents outbidding each other for visibility — not from results for you. | Agents pay one flat $300 to list — a fraction of Domain's thousands. You never pay for the data. |
| Referral income | Not available | Earn $1,000–$5,000 per referral as a Proplo Scout |
The average Australian home is worth over $900,000. When you sell, you pay 2–2.5% in agent commission — that's $18,000–$22,500 on a median home. A large portion of that commission goes directly to portal advertising on Domain and realestate.com.au.
You're paying for a system that charges agents for the privilege of selling your home, then passes that cost back to you through higher commissions. And now, that system is owned by an American corporation.
Proplo exists because we believe Australians deserve free access to property intelligence. You shouldn't need to pay to know what your home is worth. You shouldn't need to pay to see what your neighbours sold for. You shouldn't need to pay to understand your suburb's market.
Every tool, every insight, every calculator on Proplo is free. We make money from a flat $300 listing fee and optional agent tools — not from your wallet, and not from the ad-spend war that inflates your commission.
Property Intelligence for Everyone.
Go to Proplo — It's Free →