Domain Holdings Australia Limited (ASX:DHG) has entered into a binding agreement to acquire Insight Data Solutions (IDS).
Domain CEO, Jason Pellegrino, said the move marks another step forward in executing on its marketplace strategy.
“Domain is on a journey to expand its addressable market beyond Agents and Consumers to Financial Institutions, and Government.”
Mr Pellegrino said the acquisition of IDS establishes Domain as a market leading provider of land and property valuation, insights and analytics services into the Government sector, and significantly expands the size of the Property Data Solutions pillar of Domain’s marketplace strategy.
“We are pleased to welcome IDS to the Domain Group. IDS brings rich experience in building property data platforms and delivery services to support the workflow requirements of Governments, particularly in regards to land valuations,” Mr Pellegrino said.
“Federal, State and Local Governments will always play a central role in Australia’s property ecosystem. IDS’ platforms, workflow tools and property analytics allow Governments to make more timely, accurate and nuanced decisions regarding land valuations, land use, tax policy and revenues.
“The importance of these services is likely to amplify as Governments deal with increasing land scarcity, the challenges of housing affordability and planning policy, increased infrastructure investment and the transition of revenue from transfer duties to annual levies based on land valuation”.
Established in 2013, IDS is a market leading property data business focused on two key customer segments: Government and Corporate.
IDS’ platform and workflow tools connect many of the key stakeholders in the property ecosystem: the Office of the Valuer General (VG) who is responsible for statutory valuation processes; the Local Government Authorities (LGAs) which levy rates based on these valuations; valuers who perform the statutory valuations; and the public whose rates are based on the statutory valuations.
In the Government segment, IDS’ ‘VM Online’ is the leading private statutory valuation workflow platform of scale in Australia. It manages 28% of national statutory valuation volume, with leading positions in Victoria and the City of Adelaide.
The vast majority of remaining valuation volumes are managed in-house by State VGs and LGAs. In the Corporate sector, IDS has a bank-grade Automated Valuation Model product suite and its valuation models are in use by smaller lenders, fintechs and mortgage brokers.
As part of the transaction, the IDS founders, Louie Psaroulis, Mike Thanos and Chris Spanos, will remain with the business to continue to drive the IDS strategy.
“IDS is a strong standalone business and a great addition to our Property Data Solutions pillar. Through the acquisition we can support IDS to keep innovating and expanding into new markets and geographies,” Mr Pellegrino said.