About
The idea for Secret Agent occurred to me at a time when I was sleeping on a friend’s couch in London. It was 2007 and I was working for a property company in Kensington, London, after a five-year stint working in the Melbourne property market. My mind wandered that night as I lay on the cold London couch, but it came up with a cohesive plan that comprised the following elements: I would provide services to those seeking to acquire property rather than those that sold; I would be independent, for the client’s benefit and for mine too; I would commute around the city on a motorbike attending clients; and the business would be called Secret Agent.
Almost everything in my mind that night came true, except the motorbike — which on reflection, I think was a good thing.
After a stint in London property, I wanted to travel. I used my last pay cheque at the London-based property firm to travel the world. I had a Barclays debit card that, for some reason, would never show me the account balance at any ATM I visited outside of the UK. I had no idea of my financial position. I travelled freely and carefree through Europe and beyond. Each withdrawal of funds I expected the ATM to refuse them, but the funds kept flowing. I wasn’t sure whether it was the strength of the British pound against all the other currencies or whether Barclays was extending me unagreed credit. I was in Manhattan when the funds finally ran out. It was time to come home.
The business would never have launched without my dear old nan.
When I returned to Melbourne from overseas, I was absolutely skint. I wanted to start Secret Agent as I had planned from that London couch, but it seemed impossible. The founding of any business needs capital. I could not find the start-up funds as the banks wanted some type of collateral to lend against, which I did not have. Exactly when one should start a business, generally when young and energetic, is when one does not have a cracker. I made an appointment to see my nan. I asked her for the initial capital to start Secret Agent — the hardest request I ever made. Nan agreeably consented, saying ‘One needs to give things a go’, and cut the cheque, there and then, to build the initial website of Secret Agent, as well as provide three months of runway to live while the business got off the ground.
When I was leaving her house via the side courtyard on the night that I visited her to make the request, she asked what I was going to call the business. I told her it would be called Secret Agent. I could see her roll her eyes, ever so slightly. I had an uneasy feeling that she was thinking ‘This looks shaky’. But if she did, she never let on, and she always eagerly followed the business and its goings-on. Nan helped me obtain something that, as one gets older, one learns is vastly more important than money: independence. Especially independence early in life.
Every good business relies on sound people to help them start. I found Lauren Baird, one of the smartest people I have encountered, who has since gone on to work at the intersection of quantum computing and artificial intelligence. Lauren had just graduated out of university and had a great talent for all things code as well as founding an ecologically friendly web hosting service. Lauren helped to build the initial Secret Agent website.
Secret Agent officially launched in Melbourne in January 2008, just as the GFC was beginning to stir. The brand ‘Secret Agent’ was clearly created to be memorable. Being in my early twenties at the time, I took a risk with the brand name, one that I probably would not have selected if I had been older. I remember that I had initial issues with some backroom officials in registering the name at the time.
Secret Agent was developed to give the purchaser an edge they wouldn’t have if they went it alone. Before starting the business, I could see the growing sophistication required to handle urban property transactions, especially in London and the USA, and that new services would be required to meet the rising complexity back in Australia, too. At the core of the Secret Agent proposition, then as now, was helping people and groups obtain value in their property transactions.
Our first trading address was 606 Drummond Street, Carlton North, which was the front room of my house at the time. I would wake up in the morning, go for a swim at Fitzroy Pool (‘Aqua Profonda’), and then return to my front room, the engine room of the new business at that point, to begin business and start the day. Tre Bicchieri — a small Italian cafe on Rathdowne Street nearby — served as my mid-morning second space. I would order my flat white and avocado toast there, while reading the newspaper (remember those?) and planning the remainder of the day. I do not think I will ever have a year as exciting as that first one.
In 2009, the business, and my residence, moved to Rathdowne Village, a two-storey shopfront located at 292 Rathdowne Street, Carlton North. I lived a very Victorian-era life, living above the shopfront, while running the business down on the ground, shop level. Jacinta Ryan, a staff member, and an experienced hand at running businesses, told me that life would never be as good as when you are operating in such a setup as I was at the time. I think she was right. Yet at some point it becomes untenable. Families start and distance is needed. But in the early years, I couldn’t have asked for a better arrangement.
There have been two fundamental focuses since our founding. First, providing services to those looking to acquire property, usually in inner-city locations, but not exclusively. Second, research — formalised with the launch of The Secret Agent Report in October 2012, and a parallel focus of the firm ever since.
As all winemakers understand, each yearly vintage brings its own grading of quality, and it is not uncommon for strings of bad years, low quality ones, as well as good years, with high quality fruit, to cluster together. During boom property years, of which since 2008 there have been many, it has been extremely difficult to obtain value for clients. The greatest difficulty for our business has been how to serve clients when the financial conditions have not been right for them to participate.
As I sit here and write this in 2026, I’m much more comfortable, as property conditions remain subdued, the overall quality in the market has started to become acceptable, and the interest rate environment feels more natural. The euphoria has mostly left the property market.
Today the world is in a great state of flux. Secret Agent is moving to tackle the new frontiers that all this change will bring. In 2025 the firm took its offices in the 60L Green Building in Carlton. 60L is in the heart of the largest biomedical precinct in the southern hemisphere, home to CSL, Melbourne University, and borders Melbourne’s CBD. The 60L building is one of the most sustainable office buildings ever constructed in Australia, and this makes it fitting to be Secret Agent’s current head office.
When I attend work, I still feel the same pulse that I felt back in 2008 when I started the firm. The rigour Secret Agent was founded on remains intact. I am most grateful to all the clients who have used Secret Agent at some point in their lives and the staff that have worked within our walls.
Paul E. Osborne