Since the prohibition on buying and selling domain names in Australian has been lifted since last June 1, 2008, there’s a surge in domain name market. Some of the early registrants of popular and premium .com.au domain names are selling these domains at high prices. Good for them! They will surely be making lots of money from Sales of com.au domain names! An example would be the business.com.au which is being auction with a high starting price of $1,000,000. Who wants to get that one? It makes me wish I have bought a popular domain name before. I could have earned big $ from it! Heh!

Anyway, you can read more of the interesting domain name frenzy in Australia in the press release below.

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 registration fee into a 6 figure sale is probably consigned to history but one thing is sure, with 1.2 million .au domain names already registered, supply of premium domains becomes tighter and tighter leading to a surge in domain name valuations.

www.netfleet.com.au is the leading website to have emerged with a focus on Australian domains with nearly 6,000 .au domains listed. It currently lists several sales so far including photographers.com.au for $5,000 and pwc.com.au for $10,450. Still current auctions include business.com.au with an asking price of $1,000,000 and hobart.com.au drawing a bid of $25,000.

With less than 5 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 – $80,000 est
Freestuff.com.au – A$18,500

Sources:

Regulation change: http://www.auda.org.au/policies/auda-2008-08/

Current domains for sale: http://www.netfleet.com.au

.Com sales reports: http://www.soldnames.com/top/com/

.Com.au sales reports: http://www.dnjournal.com/ytd-sales-charts.htm, http://www.dailydomainer.com/200724-tenniscomau-sold-for-an-estimated-us50k-to-us70k.html, http://www.theage.com.au/news/biztech/the-coming-dot-au-property-boom/2008/02/26/1203788290820.html?page=4