The owner of realcommercial.com.au has upgraded the usability of its commercial site, realestate.com.au Ltd, to make it more easier for commercial agents to list properties and businesses for sale; and for customers to buy or lease.

The Chief Information Officer of realcommercial.com.au, Chris Vulovic, said nine of the 11 months spent building the site was in devising the new features, look and feel. She said much of this time was spent conducting surveys and interviewing existing end users and a selection of the 800 agents that use the site. These findings were taken back to the office, pored over before again going out, re-interviewing and questioning people until a completed design, which she was satisfied the users would be happy with, was achieved.

"The commercial buyer is looking at different things to your home buyer," she said. "For example, they are looking for square meters. So the typical buyer is saying 'I need 1000 square meters for my manufacturing plant, where can I have it?' The location is an afterthought."

The new site now makes meters squared a key search function on the homepage along with searching by categories such as Land/Development or Industrial/Warehouse.

Vulovic said she has been vindicated by her efforts, as the launch of the new site has been met with approval.