Cracking the trans-Tasman home reno market

Last month was all about milestones. One year since hipages Group listed on the ASX. 18 years since my own home improvement experience sparked the idea for hipages. Investing in property management technology platform Bricks+Agent. Being recognised among the most innovative and impactful companies at the 2021 Pausefest Awards, Australia.

This month we’ve continued that focus on milestones by joining forces with New Zealand’s leading tradie marketplace Builderscrack in an acquisition announced today.

Founded in 2007, Builderscrack CEO Jeremy Wyn-Harris and his team have grown the business to become New Zealand’s leading tradie marketplace with over NZ$250m of job value from more than 480,000 jobs posted since launch.

As I’ve said before, building businesses is where I’m truly in my zone – a passion that I know Jeremy also shares. Both hipages and Builderscrack are built on a shared vision of seamlessly connecting tradies and homeowners, and both have passionate and entrepreneurial teams who are at most at home when pushing boundaries and challenging the status quo.

And looking at our respective markets, both Australia and New Zealand have experienced a home improvement boom over the past 12 months that shows no signs of slowing.

As reported in our hipages Group FY21 Full Year Financial Results back in August, total job volume on the hipages platform grew by 12% in FY21 to 1.53m jobs posted. In the coming 12 months, 68% of Australian homeowners have reported that they intend to carry out work on their homes.

In New Zealand, 80% of homeowners undertook home maintenance, repairs or renovations in the past 12 months*, translating to 95,000 jobs posted on the Builderscrack platform in FY21, with over NZ$67m of job value.

Looking to the future, 74% of New Zealand homeowners intend to undertake work on their homes in the next 12 months – an opportunity that we are excited about and fully intend to maximise by leveraging the strategic and operational experience we gained at hipages from scaling our business in Australia.

I’m excited to welcome the Builderscrack team to hipages Group, eager to see what we can achieve together, and proud of our hipages team and all the milestones we’ve achieved this year – we’ve set a high bar for 2022!

*Commissioned research from hipages, conducted by Thrive Insights