Cult discount giant Kmart is launching a stand-alone store format aimed at winning budget-conscious Australian households from Ikea, Amart and Freedom.

The Wesfarmers-owned powerhouse will open its first K Home showroom at Box Hill South in Melbourne’s east on June 18, with most products in the store not available from regular Kmart outlets.

The store will focus on furniture and homewares in a showroom-style format, with curated displays and room-based inspiration designed to help shoppers furnish their homes without paying premium prices.
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Kmart chief commercial officer Callum Smith said the trial would help the retailer bring more of its home range into stores.

“K Home at Box Hill South gives us the opportunity to bring more of our home range into store and better understand how customers want to shop it,” Mr Smith said.

“The space has been designed differently from a traditional Kmart store, with a more immersive home environment, curated displays and room-based inspiration to help customers explore the range in a more intuitive way.

“Customers have embraced Kmart’s home range for many years, and we’ve continued to grow our furniture offer as customer demand has grown.”

Kmart’s K Home concept will bring more furniture and larger homewares into a physical store, with many products not available from regular Kmart outlets. Picture: Kmart

Mr Smith said affordability was central to the new concept.

“At a time when value matters more than ever, this trial is about helping Australian families create a home they love at a price they can afford,” he said.

Colliers commercial agent Jake Beckwith said K Home was more likely to compete with Ikea, Amart and Freedom than Spotlight.

“I wouldn’t put Spotlight in there because they’re more homewares, linen and curtains,” Mr Beckwith said.

“I’d be saying more so the Amarts and Freedoms of the world, or Amart, Freedom and Ikea.

“Absolutely, Kmart’s got their own iconic brand that they work with, and Anko is a bit of a cult figure.

“Everyone looks for those Kmart hacks online, so I think they’ve definitely got a big target audience that they can capture.”

K Home has been designed with curated displays and room-based inspiration to help shoppers furnish their homes without paying premium furniture prices. Picture: Kmart

Mr Beckwith said Kmart’s ability to refresh products quickly and find the right locations would be critical if the concept expanded.

“They’re a really good retailer, a really powerful retailer,” he said.

“They’ve got a strong brand behind them with Anko and they’re able to refresh the product line continuously and keep up with trends pretty quickly and swiftly.

“They’re very well versed in the property sphere, so they know their target locations and making sure that they’re just in front of the right people and the right eyes.”

Mr Beckwith said the smaller K Home format could give Kmart more flexibility than its traditional department stores.

“Being able to be more nimble, these K Homes are able to go into a lot smaller spaces than a typical Kmart would,” he said.

“It allows them to plug the gaps in the network that they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to find.”

Vanta Advisory buyers agent Alex Groh said Kmart’s new K Home format would need to feel different from a regular store while keeping the pulling power of the Kmart brand. Picture: Supplied

Vanta Advisory buyers agent Alex Groh said the concept was a smart way to draw shoppers into a physical retail destination at a time when large-format retailers were battling for foot traffic.

“That’s often the biggest struggle that a lot of large-format retail businesses or bulky-goods businesses have. It is getting people there,” Mr Groh said.

“We know that once people are there, they do spend money.

“So it’s a great way to get them in, a great way to get them looking into bigger-ticket items and buying the ancillary items they generally sell as well.”

Mr Groh said K Home needed to feel different from a regular Kmart while still leaning on the parent brand’s pulling power.

“It can’t lose the Kmart brand entirely,” he said.

“But if it is going to be a unique store, then it has to differentiate itself from the others to attract people to actually go there and not just shop at a regular Kmart.”

The new K Home store at Box Hill South will trial a more immersive showroom-style layout as Kmart pushes further into furniture and homewares. Picture: Kmart

He said the concept would be tested in a competitive furniture market, with discretionary spending still under pressure.

“You’ve got brands that have been around for a long time, your Focus on Furniture, your Nick Scalis,” Mr Groh said.

“But where they may differentiate themselves is bringing the typical Kmart experience and adding that furniture as a layer on top to draw people in.”

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Howard Hanna has launched a private listing network, aptly named HannaList.

HannaList, powered by software firm Ocusell, will enable Howard Hanna listing agents and their clients to share listings with Howard Hanna buyer agents before wider distribution through the multiple listing service (MLS) system. The firm said in a statement that HannaList gives agents valuable real-time buyer insights about their listings, which can help them “evaluate timing, positioning and demand” before reaching the wider market.

“This is about strategy and consumer choice,” Howard Hanna Real Estate Services CEO Hoby Hanna said in the statement Wednesday. “Sellers deserve more flexibility in how their homes enter the market. HannaList gives them the ability to understand buyer demand, refine positioning, and build momentum before the listing is broadly distributed across the market.”

The firm said HannaList was created in collaboration with regional partners, including MLS Now and West Penn Multi-List.

MLS Now president and CEO Garry Marsoubian said HannaList aligns with current regulations, specifically the National Association of Realtors’ Clear Cooperation Policy, which requires that listings be entered into the MLS within one business day of public marketing. However, there are exemptions to the policy that enable homesellers to stop (i.e., office exclusives) or delay (i.e., Delayed Marketing Exempt Listings) the distribution of their listing to a wider audience.

“MLS Now values innovation that works within established MLS policy and supports transparency for consumers,” Marsoubian said in a written statement. “Howard Hanna’s approach shows how brokerages can introduce new strategies while continuing to operate within Clear Cooperation and the broader MLS framework.”

HannaList will be available in Northeast Ohio and Western Pennsylvania starting in April, and will be rolled out to additional markets throughout 2026. Howard Hanna currently operates in 15 states, with its home base in Pittsburgh.

“This isn’t about limiting exposure,” Hanna said. “It’s about launching with strategy. We build momentum first and then amplify broadly.”

This isn’t Howard Hanna’s first foray into exclusive listings; the brokerage partnered with California proptech leader RealScout to launch Find It First in 2019.

The platform enabled homebuyers to search Howard Hanna listings before they’re added to the MLS and distributed to larger portals. In a previous Inman article, Hanna called Find It First a “true success” for agents and consumers. Find It First has been temporarily shut down for an update, a Howard Hanna spokesperson said, adding that the platform will relaunch in early April.

HannaList’s launch comes amid continued debates over consumer choice, the ownership and distribution of listing data, and market transparency in an industry still trying to find its footing in an ever-volatile environment.

Those debates have only intensified in recent months, particularly as Compass completed its acquisition of Anywhere, giving the seven brands under the former holding company the option to adopt Compass’ technology — and marketing ethos.

Hoby Hanna has often been on the same side of the debate as Compass, issuing a striking letter to NAR last year outlining why his company would no longer follow Clear Cooperation “as a matter of course.”

In his latest Inman Interview, which took place in January, Hoby Hanna discussed Compass’ moves and offered what now seems to be a clue about HannaList.

“From a broker’s perspective… if you’re big enough and you can really organize your data, that is going to be the game changer over the next three to five years. A lot of brokerage firms have done nothing with their data. It’s sort of stagnant,” he said. “…We’re working on that right now with a lot of partners strategically on how we can distribute data, whether it be the listings to sort of create a more efficient marketplace to sell the house for the consumer in a faster fashion to buyers who are already approved, who are already looking in the market, and they’re ready to pull the trigger today.”

“So shortening days on market, creating an impact, and getting a greater price.”

Email Marian McPherson