Russian Classifieds Giant Avito Hires ex-Homsters Boss Andrzej Olejnik as MD of Real Estate

The Prosus-owned Russian classifieds portal Avito has hired Andrzej Olejnik as the new Managing Director of its real estate operations.

Olejnik joined Avito last year as a member of the Real Estate department's advisory board and has plenty of previous experience building and scaling online real estate businesses having founded the homsters portal which operates in Kazakhstan. Olejnik also has experience in the banking and venture capital sectors and has sat on the boards of several startups over the years.

Speaking of his appointment, Olejnik said:

"Avito has always been a leader in online real estate in Russia. This leadership puts on us the responsibility to move the market forward. Today, every second apartment in Russia is sold through Avito, more than 480,000 sellers and landlords advertise on the platform with 2.2 million ads placed, and more than 40 million users visit the Real Estate section every month, making Avito Real Estate one of the biggest real estate platforms in the world."

"Our team has already achieved a lot: we have made the search for housing simple, provided the widest range of choice and guaranteed the confidence that users would not miss the best option for their family. Despite great success, we know how to make searching and decision making even easier. And this will soon become apparent in the product."

Many in the real estate portal industry see Russia as an exciting market. The relatively new private housing market, lack of strict state-level legislation and the often uniform nature of the housing stock mean that portal businesses are less encumbered than their American and Western European counterparts and can develop products that market straight to the consumer. According to some commentators, truly digital real estate transactions are set to become a reality in the country.

At homsters, Olejnik developed proprietary technology for portal businesses to work with developers to market straight to consumers and his priorities in his new role are clear according to his new boss Vladimir Pravdivy, CEO of Avito:

"...now we have come to a very important development stage - we are moving closer to the transaction and entering into new business models, expanding the role we play in our customers' lives. This is a serious challenge, especially in such a large and complex business. I am sure that Andrzej's entrepreneurial experience in digital real estate projects on various markets around the world from Eastern Europe to the Middle East will help Avito strengthen its leadership on the Russian real estate market and launch new innovative products for clients."

Although Avito is by far the leading horizontal marketplace site in Russia with huge traffic in the country, in the real estate sector Avito, alongside its fellow Prosus-owned vertical title Domofond, competes with the newly listed real estate market leader Cian.

Whereas Cian is stronger in the profitable markets around Moscow and St Petersburg, Avito is traditionally stronger in the provinces.

In October 2021 a deal for Cian and Avito to merge was blocked by Russian competition authorities over concerns that the combined resources of both portals would have led to a 62% market share and stunted competition in the market.