Harlow Australia - real estate website design for a Sydney-led agency

Harlow Australia is a real estate agency across 26 Australian markets, from Bondi to Byron. Same templates as every Harlow edition, but Australian through and through: suburbs and agents, auctions and open homes, rent per week, settled sales, Pty Ltd with an ABN, and an Acknowledgement of Country in the footer.

Project facts

• Client: Harlow Real Estate Pty Ltd (fictional)
• Sector: Residential real estate
• Markets: Sydney plus 25 markets across six states and the ACT
• Services: Market localisation · Copywriting · Brand adaptation · Real estate website design · Accessibility (WCAG 2.2 AA) · SEO foundations
• Templates: 9 page templates shared with every Harlow edition
• Stack: Hand-built HTML, CSS and vanilla JavaScript; one strings file and one theme file per market

The brief

Australian property language, not British with sunshine

Australia inherits British spelling, but its property vocabulary is its own: real estate agent not estate agent, suburb not neighbourhood, appraisal not valuation, open home not open day, and rent quoted per week. Seasons flip too, so nothing in the copy assumes a northern-hemisphere calendar.

Designing for Australia

What actually changed between the US and this edition

• Story - US edition: 27 US markets, founded in Brooklyn · Australia: 26 Australian markets, founded in Paddington
• Guide - US edition: West Village · Australia: Paddington, Sydney: terraces, Five Ways, Centennial Park
• Prices - US edition: $5,450 / mo rent · Australia: $1,350 per week rent; settled sales
• Words - US edition: Advisor, neighborhood, valuation · Australia: Agent, suburb, appraisal, open home, off the plan
• Selling - US edition: Public launch · Australia: On market for auction or private sale
• Legal - US edition: Fair Housing · Australia: Privacy Act 1988 and APPs, OAIC; Commonwealth and state anti-discrimination law
• Footer - US edition: LLC · Australia: Pty Ltd, ABN, Acknowledgement of Country
• Look - US edition: Ivory, bronze, Cormorant · Australia: High-key white, ocean blue and ochre; Gambetta + General Sans, rounder corners

Brand adaptation

The same Harlow, with a local accent

Ocean blue works as the interface colour, ochre italics bring warmth, and a lighter ochre is used on dark sections. Gambetta and General Sans (both free from Fontshare) feel contemporary and relaxed, and larger corner radii soften the system. The descriptor becomes Real Estate, as Australian agencies use it.

Homepage and neighbourhood guide

A historic Sydney terrace leads into Find the place that feels like yours, with Buy / Rent / Sell and a suburb, address or postcode search. The city cards cover Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and the Gold Coast. The Paddington guide quotes median house price, weekly rent, terrace sales, time to the CBD and Edgecliff station.

Compliance, accessibility and trust

• Privacy policy under the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles, with the OAIC complaint route and Spam Act consent for marketing.
• Fair treatment statement under Commonwealth and state anti-discrimination law.
• Footer: Pty Ltd, demo ABN and an Acknowledgement of Country.
• Passes automated WCAG 2.2 AA checks on every page at 360, 390, 768 and 1440 px: no contrast failures, no unreachable controls, no horizontal scrolling.
• A language switcher built from hreflang sits in the header on desktop and in the footer on phones.

One system, twelve markets

Every visible string lives in one file per market, and every colour and typeface in one theme file. This edition needed no new templates or components: a strings file, a theme, regional photography and local legal content made it a different brand experience. For a property group with international plans, a new market becomes a content project rather than a rebuild.

Deliverables

• Market profile: language, formats, legal and seasonality
• Full localised copy across 9 templates, header, footer and forms
• Brand adaptation: palette, type pairing and logo descriptor
• 20 regional photographs (Pexels, credited in credits.json)
• Local legal content
• Accessibility pass (WCAG 2.2 AA, automated) and QA at four screen widths
• Portfolio media: stills, full-page captures, scroll video, OG image, brand board