Milk Chocolate®, an Australian start-up co-founded by Michael Cleary and Richie Ragel, is set to transform the property purchasing landscape.
The company is launching a new digital platform designed to simplify the property journey from planning, purchasing, through to management.
Drawing from their backgrounds in marketing, personal experiences in property, and running the property services business for eight years, the pair aims to streamline what they describe as an “archaic and fragmented” industry.
Michael and Richie’s friendship dates back to high school, but it was their shared passion for real estate that led to the creation of Milk Chocolate®.
“We were both working in advertising, and it became clear that we had a mutual interest in buying and renovating properties,” says Michael.
“It started as a side hustle, painting walls on weekends and digging trenches before heading back to the office, but we soon realised the process was incredibly disjointed.”
Recognising the difficulties in navigating the property market, the duo initially launched Milk Chocolate as a services business.
The services offered include planning, purchasing, construction, and property management nationally for those wanting to buy a family home or build a property portfolio.
They’ve taken that experience and built a platform that automates and digitises the entire property journey.
“We saw that the process of buying, renovating, and managing property needed a complete overhaul,” Michael said.
“We knew there had to be a more efficient way to do this.”
The platform allows users to manage every aspect of their property journey online, from initial planning, which they call a Game Plan™, to post-purchase management.
“The platform guides you through every step – whether buying a family home, building a property portfolio, or renovating,” says Richie.
“It builds a bespoke Game Plan™ based on your financial goals and lifestyle drivers.”
He says, “The platform then understands and pairs the right location from around Australia that best suits the client’s bespoke needs and requirements.
It just doesn’t put all clients into the one location; it has identified multiple hotspots nationally, at various price points, yield thresholds, and land opportunities.”
The platform’s real-time data, sourced from CoreLogic and other public datasets, allows users to track their properties’ performance similarly to stock investors using tools like Robinhood.
“A lot of people rely on spreadsheets and scattered bits of information,” explains Michael.
“We wanted to give them everything they need in one place: equity, loan-to-value ratios, portfolio performance … all in real-time, right at their fingertips.”
Feedback since the platform’s April launch has been overwhelmingly positive, especially from first-time homebuyers.
“One of the biggest challenges for new buyers is fear of the unknown.
We’ve taken that fear away by clearly articulating every step in the process with a beautiful and unique platform design,” says Richie.
“Clients say the platform is intuitive, transparent, and gives them peace of mind, knowing they can track their journey from start to finish.”
In addition to helping individual buyers, they have also caught the eye of major investors.
This includes REACH Australia, backed by Second Century Ventures, which is confident in its potential to reshape the property industry.
Milk Chocolate’s team of subject matter experts have combined experience spanning over 50 years in Real Estate and Construction.
These include economists, property advisors, data scientists, machine learning engineers, buyer’s agents, and project managers, to name a few.
The platform is designed to enhance this human expertise with cutting-edge technology.
“The tool integrates seamlessly with our services,” says Richie.
“But eventually, we want clients to be able to do everything themselves—from buying a property to managing a portfolio—without the need to rely on us.”
As part of their ongoing development, Milk Chocolate® plans to launch an active portfolio tracker in early 2025.
“The tracker will allow users to monitor their assets in real-time, showing everything from ROI to maintenance schedules while tracking their actual performance against the approved Game Plan™.
It will give them full transparency into how they’re tracking whilst providing intuitive recommendations on how they can leverage and grow their portfolio,” Richie explains.
“We’re essentially building the Robinhood for property investment.”
Michael and Richie believe that the platform can benefit not only buyers but also real estate agents.
“We’ve found that educated buyers make the process smoother for agents as well,” says Michael.
“They come to the table with a deeper understanding of economic drivers and the specific assets they want.
All of our buyers are qualified, and we can get a deal put together and closed quickly and efficiently.”
