Primus Property
From Student Housing Site to Full-Service Real Estate Platform
A real estate company's outdated WordPress site pigeonholed them as "student housing only" when they offered diverse property management and development services. I led a complete rebrand and rebuild: managing a graphic designer for brand identity, designing and building the site on Webflow, and collaborating with a developer to integrate automated property listings from their CRM.
The result: a platform that showcases their full business scope, generated 484 trackable property inquiries in 6 months, and attracted a major European development client who discovered their services through the new site.
Role
Lead Designer
Project Manager
team
Product Designer
Graphic Designer
Developer
Tools
Webflow
Figma
Cloudflare
Timeline
6 months
Primus Property offered property management, development services (Primus DMS), and diverse rental listings across student housing, family homes, and commercial properties. But their website only showcased student accommodation, making potential clients think that's all they did.
The WordPress template-based site was visually outdated, had poor UX, and was impossible to update without developer help. For a real estate business posting new listings regularly, this created constant bottlenecks. The business was also ready for a complete rebrand to match their expanded offerings.
Key constraint: Integrating automated property listings from their CRM to the website required custom development beyond my skillset.
The site's navigation structure and visual hierarchy were costing Primus opportunities. While they offered property management, commercial rentals, and development services (Primus DMS), the information architecture buried these offerings under 3-4 levels of nested menus.
The homepage immediately funneled users toward student accommodation. A landlord looking for property management would land on the page, see primarily student housing content, and leave - unaware Primus could help them. Primus DMS wasn't surfaced in primary navigation at all - hidden several layers deep.
The result: Users perceived Primus as a student housing specialist because that's what the homepage prioritized, even though comprehensive services existed buried in the sitemap.
The WordPress bottleneck compounded this. The template's rigid structure made restructuring the navigation impossible without significant developer work.
The design challenge: Flatten the navigation hierarchy, surface all services equally, make Primus DMS discoverable, and reposition Primus as a full-service real estate company - all while freeing them from WordPress constraints.
Strategy & Rebuild
I mapped out everything Primus offered: student accommodation, family and professional rentals, property management services, and property development management (Primus DMS). The old navigation made these services nearly impossible to discover.
I restructured the information architecture to give equal weight to all offerings with a flat, simplified navigation. Services, locations, and company information are now equally prominent from the homepage, making it easy for any user type - students, professionals, or businesses - to find what they need in 2 clicks or less.
I coordinated with a graphic designer to refresh the brand identity, providing creative direction to ensure the visual language felt professional and comprehensive rather than niche and student-focused. We explored several logo concepts, but the client wanted to maintain brand recognition without straying too far from the original. We kept the existing icon and modernized the color palette and typography to signal growth while preserving familiarity. The rebrand communicated: "We do student housing well, but we're capable of so much more."
Design & Build
I created dedicated pages for each service with equal prominence, ensuring Primus DMS was clearly explained rather than buried. The properties page displays diverse listings with filtering by type (student, family, commercial), and I prioritized mobile experience since many users browse properties on their phones.
I built the site on Webflow specifically to give the client independence. They could update content themselves without needing a developer for every small change.
The Technical Challenge
The client wanted new property listings from their CRM to automatically publish to the website. I initially tried to build this integration myself but quickly realized it required custom development: pulling data from the CRM and publishing through Cloudflare for reliable updates.
I brought in a developer and learned to communicate design requirements in technical terms, explaining the user experience needs, data points to display, and how filtering should work. Managing this collaboration meant keeping timelines on track and ensuring the technical solution didn't compromise the design vision.
The final platform positions Primus as a comprehensive real estate company. The homepage immediately communicates the breadth of services, and the properties page showcases all listings with automated CRM integration. New properties appear as soon as the client adds them to their system.
Primus DMS now has a dedicated link to it's seperate site with clear calls-to-action for business inquiries. Each service offering gets equal treatment with dedicated pages and inquiry forms. The cohesive rebrand creates a professional, trustworthy presence, and the client can update content independently on Webflow.
The Qualitative Wins:
Major European client lead: A large European client discovered Primus while researching rental properties. Because the site clearly linked to Primus DMS, they realized Primus offered property development management services and inquired about a major Australian development project. This opportunity wouldn't have been possible if DMS remained invisible on the old site.
Trackable lead generation: The old WordPress site had no way to track inquiry volume or trends. Now Primus can see exactly how many inquiries they're getting, which properties generate interest, and where users come from.
Client independence: Primus updates property listings through their CRM (automatically published via Cloudflare), manages content on Webflow without developer help, and makes changes in minutes instead of days.