Sydney, Australia, Sept 17, 2008 Internet gold rush is on?

A major shift in policy from auDA, Australia's domain name regulator has lead to an explosion in .au domain name trading.

Effective from 1st June 2008, the change means that Australians can now buy and sell domain names for profit resulting in a boom in virtual real estate speculation.

Domain names are the backbone of the internet and often aptly described as virtual real estate. Indeed, thousands of domainers around the world make their living from these online properties by buying, selling and even renting to people and businesses that have a connection to the domain name.

Now, with this new legislation, the industry has arrived in Australia with a bang. The prospect of turning a $30 or so registration fee into a 6 figure sale is probably consigned to history but one thing is sure, with 1.1 million .au domain names already registered, supply of premium domains becomes tighter and tighter leading to a surge in domain name valuations.

Netfleet is the leading website to have emerged with a focus on Australian domains with over 3,000 .au domains listed. It currently lists several sales so far including photographers.com.au for $5,000 and pwc.com.au for $9,500. Still current auctions include mail.com.au with an asking price of $1,000,000 and hobart.com.au drawing a bid of $25,000.

With less than 4 months since the dawn of this new type of investment, the .au domain aftermarket has experienced a tremendous start and it's only a matter of time until we can expect to see the first of the dot com dot au millionaires.

Selection of domain name sales:

Internationally:

Sex.com ? US$14,000,000

Porn.com ? US$9,500,000

Business.com - $US7,500,000

Perth.com ? US$200,000

In Australia (some sales made prior to rule change so exact prices can not be 100% verified)

Jobs.com.au - A$200,000 +

Tennis.com.au - A$60,000 ? A$80,000 est

Freestuff.com.au ? A$18,500

For more information, contact David Lye on netfleet@gmail.com or 0402 345 074