LJ Hooker Invests $100 Million In Real Estate’s Digital Future

LJ Hooker has invested $100 million towards the newly unveiled LJX-Lab in an attempt to accelerate the industry’s digital transformation.

Thanks to the multi-million investment, LJX-Lab is a digital research and development vehicle which will foster innovation through identifying, incubating and commercialising home-grown ‘proptech’. It will also introduce new global best practices and technology to local markets to enrich new products, services and training.

LJX-Lab’s first development is an online real-estate training tool called Real Edge, which is designed to "enhance the education of real estate as a profession and career, empower real-estate specialists to reach their full potential and set a new internationally-recognised standard in customer service and satisfaction in the domestic market".

Company Chairman L Janusz Hooker said Real Edge is a first for an Australian real estate network and currently in beta with LJ Hooker’s 8,000 real estate professionals.

“It’s the first of many innovations LJX-Lab will release leading up to 2020 to continue LJ Hooker’s rich pioneering heritage,” he said.

To provide global insights into products and services being created in LJX-Lab, Mr Hooker has assembled a dynamic advisory board of business leaders, including:

• Freelancer.com CEO, Matt Barrie (Sydney);

• MD CSIRO Innovation Fund and & Founder of Black Bird Ventures, Bill Bartee (Sydney);

• Co-Founder and Principal of RFR Holding, Michael Fuchs (New York);

• Director of Zoopla.com and former CEO of Countrywide Real Estate Group, Grenville Turner (London).