REA Group CEO Cam McIntyre on AI, listings and Australia's housing market

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When you're advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result? Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more at accenture.com/spotify.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:31)
When you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work, use Indeed Sponsored Jobs. It gives your job post the boost it needs to be seen and helps reach people with the right skills, certifications, and more. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com/podcast. That's indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:02)
Back to school is busy enough. The last thing you need is shopping that makes it harder. Whether you're moving into a dorm, your first apartment, or just getting organized for the semester, Wayfair makes it easy to get everything you need in one place. Furniture, bedding, storage, decor, study essentials, all at prices you'll love. With fast shipping before move-in day, get everything you need for back to school season. Shop wayfair.com today.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:28)
Wayfair, every style, every home.

**Cam McIntyre** (1:30)
REA is a very high-profile business. I mean, it's the biggest property player in terms of marketplaces in the country, and one of the biggest in the world, and everyone has an interest in property.

**Owen Rask** (1:42)
I'm imagining the treasurer or someone knocking you on the shoulder and saying, Cam, can you tell us a little bit more about this data? Can you get to the bottom of this? Because you guys have so much data that you could literally tap into the database and go, how many buyers are in this segment at this price at this time?

**Cam McIntyre** (1:56)
We have a significant amount of data. We're probably an inch wide and a mile and a half deep in terms of depth of data, depth of content. You know, we live in a property market that's a bit bipolar at the moment. It's a bit too tiered. So let me explain what that means.

**Owen Rask** (2:13)
Hey there, here's a quick note. This podcast contains general financial advice only. That means it's not specific to you, your needs, goals or objectives. So don't act on the information until you've spoken with your financial advisor. You'll find our full disclosure, disclaimer and link to our financial services guide in the show notes.
Cam, welcome to the show.

**Cam McIntyre** (2:34)
Thank you. Really good to be here.

**Owen Rask** (2:35)
It's good to be back, I should say.

**Cam McIntyre** (2:37)
I'm back. Yeah, yeah. A bit of an intermission, 12 months or something.

**Owen Rask** (2:40)
Yeah, that's it. But change colors, changed offices.
You've stepped across from car sales to REA Group, from one big company in technology to probably the biggest or one of the biggest here at REA Group, still growing fast, still doing all those things. But you happen to step across right when there's this thing called the SaaSpocalypse as it later became known, when technology companies got sold off, everyone realized the power of AI, interest rates was then rumored to start increasing, inflation was coming back and there was a whole heap of things happening, I guess, just to check in, how are you going?

**Cam McIntyre** (3:18)
I timed it well, didn't I?

**Owen Rask** (3:20)
Yeah, you did perfect.

**Cam McIntyre** (3:21)
No, look, it's been a great shift. I'd been a car sales and car group for 18 years and saw a lot of change in the business and we grew it from just a little startup scale up to something global and I just needed a new challenge.
It so happened REA was here and it was only a 300-meter shift from the car group office and it's been great.

**Owen Rask** (3:51)
How does that come to be? Obviously, you're the CEO of one and now you're the CEO of this.
Most people would never get to experience that kind of a shift at that level. How does that take place?

**Cam McIntyre** (4:00)
Yeah, I guess, there's a process that everyone goes through, so I don't need to talk to that so much, but I guess from my perspective, moving from the second largest purchase that someone makes in their life to the largest purchase someone makes in their life is quite a step change. But the process that people go through when it comes to considering buying a car or selling a car and buying or selling a home is pretty similar.