Rent.com.au boss Mark Woschnak steps down
The founding managing director of Rent.com.au, Mark Woschnak, has announced his decision to leave a year after its after its float on the ASX.
Woschnak has taken the decision to step down to facilitate new leadership ahead of the company's next phase of commercialisation and growth. Plans include the launch of lease.com.au as a commercial/industrial rental portal.
“I am extremely proud of what RENT has achieved and my role in its success, from founding the business in 2007, through to successfully listing the Company on the ASX in June last year,” Mr Woschnak said.
Woschnak will step down immediately with Greg Bader, who has been providing strategic consulting services to RENT, to assume the interim CEO role while a thorough recruitment process is undertaken by the board.
Bader has worked in the Information and Communication Technology industry for more than 20 years, most recently as a key member of iiNet’s executive team, holding the respective positions of Chief Business Officer and Chief Technology Officer.
Rent.com.au Limited continued its rapid growth in agent and landlord registrations during June, with 651,419 unique visitors.
The Nielsen Company reported RENT jumped to the second highest time on site position within the Australian portal industry. But the website revenue has not matched sharemarket expectations despite increasing its monthly unique visitors.
In the March quarter, it generated $223,000 in revenue with reported $1.6 million costs.
“Following the surge in new agent and landlord registrations over recent months, we now have approximately 90% of all real estate agent rental property listings and a record number of private landlord listings,” Woschnak said.
“We’ve had 2,105 real estate agents who registered with www.rent.com.au since the start of March, including 450 in June."
It is aiming for one million renters to visit the site per month within five years, with transactions between $15 and $40 per service.
Rent.com.au is the only national web portal in Australia that focuses solely on the rental property market and includes listings from both property agents and non-agent private landlords.
Rent.com.au was established in 2007 by experienced real estate and new media entrepreneur Mark Woschnak.
It floated in June last year on the Australia Securities Exchange after a backdoor takeover of former copper, gold and nickel explorer Select Exploration.
Rent.com.au raised $5 million in new equity, at 20¢ a share. In opening morning trade it was at 21 cents, peaking late last year at 54 cents, and now trading at 14 cents.