60 | PROPERTY PORTALS
BUSINESS
www.opp-connect.com | APRIL 2013
area and are the biggest foreign buyers in the central Paris, Ile-de-France area, with 16% of the market.
Relax | A well designed property portal can make an agent’s life easier
individual sellers and estate agents can list European properties for sale or rent for gratis.
Nevertheless, whether separate or as one, both directories and portals will undoubtedly be handy time-saving tools for your business.
Portals can also be helpful if you specialise in certain price ranges or housing types, as each portal has a different audience. Te Atrium (www.
teatrium.net), an international portal for luxury homes, is one example – their platform is aimed at purchasers who are looking for elite properties to buy or rent. It allows users to contact agents and developers, handpicked by the company, about the properties advertised on their portal. Uniquely, the portal also boasts a design section, where architects and interior designers can share their portfolios with users. OPP spoke to Davide Ruggiero, the founder of Te Atrium, who told us that they chose to focus on elite properties owing to its exclusivity in the world of portals. “We believe that no portal has yet been able to address this niche with the right set of services for consumers and professionals,” he said, “and we have a solution that will address each need.” Referring to the site’s distinctive design section, he pointed to the link between property and design. “Many clients may be looking to renovate after they buy, or already own the property but want to improve it to the highest standard.” Te Atrium is also looking to launch an e-commerce platform for interior decoration companies by 2015. But Te Atrium isn’t the only company with an exclusive feature.
PropertySite.biz has a video posting capability, along with article and blog posting, while
Propertyportal.com have an integrated property auction service (
www.propertyportalauctions.com) – it seems that innovation in portals is key!
However, it’s not just the price or category of houses that have specifi c portals – so do markets. A fi ne example is
Juwai.com, which focuses on targeting Chinese buyers. Juwai was ranked the world’s largest international property search and information platform for Mandarin-speaking Chinese consumers. It is likely that their decision to create the website in Mandarin (from editorial content to buying guides, market analysis and even the call centre) contributed largely to this title – they are the fi rst site to map international listings in Chinese. Andrew Taylor, co-founder of the site, told Propertyportalwatch, “It’s not enough any longer to just list property in English. Chinese will be the dominant language on the internet by 2015, and the Chinese are among the fastest growing group of property buyers around the world. We want to help agents market [their] property to Chinese buyers, wherever located.” Juwai has an English language administrative portal (
www.juwai.com/ advertise), where agents can simply key in property data and select their criteria. Juwai will then take care of the translation, metric and currency conversions and mapping. Perhaps their launch of the site in December 2011 was simply the right time. Over the last few years, the Chinese consumer has become a dominant fi gure within the real estate industry around the world. In 2011, a staggering US$28.7 billion was spent on overseas residential property by Chinese buyers – not surprising, given that over 63 million in China have the wealth and income to be able to purchase international property, and over 60% of these are already engaged in investment. Chinese buyers also account for 54% of the total value of purchases in the prime central London
Indeed, many are taking advantage of the benefi ts of Juwai. In February 2013, real estate marketing services company Previsite formed an exclusive partnership with the site, enabling their customers to promote to Chinese buyers. Eric Calosci, CEO of Previsite, said in a statement “This partnership with
Juwai.com enables us to signifi cantly increase an agent’s chance of selling their property more quickly and at a higher price [to China], right from within the Previsite dashboard they already use every day.” By extending into Europe, Juwai is likely to see thousands of new European property listings – a large benefi t, given that European properties were viewed over 882,000 times by Chinese investors in January 2013. Juwai also has partnerships with
Zoopla.co.uk (UK), Thehomepage.
com.au (Australia) and various multiple listing services in the US. OPP spoke to Andrew Taylor, who told us that he believes
Juwai.com became so successful because of their ability to connect various markets with Chinese buyers. “
Juwai.com is the fi rst business to bring together Chinese- language buyers with the people who are developing and marketing property in other countries,” he said, “We’ve been lucky to succeed where others have tried and failed.” He went on to say “We are hosted both inside and outside of China, so we aren’t blocked or slowed down by the Great Firewall of China like sites hosted in Western countries.” He also noted that
“Whether separate or as one, directories and portals will be handy time-saving tools”
the company knows how to serve, and focuses extensively on, Chinese high net worth consumers. “Other property sites attract users of all income levels, but only the high net worth users have the resources to buy overseas,” he said. With 90 of the 540 million online users
in China searching for property online each month, it is clear that the internet is a prevalent tool in property marketing – but why? It’s less costly, more accessible, and current. “Information is so easy to get hold of on the internet,” said Mr Golamy, “and buyers today are well versed in doing their research. I’m not entirely sure that an agent in today’s world would survive without an internet presence.” Mr Taylor added “The internet
makes property information available to everyone, everywhere. It’s as simple as that.” While this is helpful for local industries, it is certainly a huge advantage for the overseas property industry. The ability for agents in France, for example,
to target their products directly to buyers in Singapore is a benefi t that is not to be sniffed at. This has no doubt affected print-based
marketing; especially since newspapers gained large amounts of revenue from estate agents advertising property for sale (we’ll be covering this in more detail in next month’s magazine). So what should you do when putting a property onto a portal? “Promote your services and state why a buyer would benefi t from working with you,” said Mr Golamy. He explained that buyers know that not every property for sale is online, so they engage with the agent and tell them about the property they have in mind so the agent can try and source it for them. “We recently found that 65% of buyers work with the agent online to fi nd their ideal property,” he said. Make an effort to respond to leads
quickly, he adds. “When someone sends an enquiry, they are in buying mode. Responding to them two weeks later or with a dry automatic response on an email is not going to work.” He also notes that sticking by the buyer through the buying process is essential. You should also ensure that your description doesn’t just focus on the property. “Buyers in research mode are hungry for all the information they can get and not necessarily just about the property,” he said. Local knowledge and distances to amenities are all key selling points. An often neglected factor is photos; bright photos taken on a sunny day create the right impression, while a bad photo can put off potential buyers. Mr Ruggiero agreed: “The pictures should be high- resolution, as they are the most important element to attract prospects – consider hiring a professional photographer to make your property stand out.” He also suggested that extensive information will help a prospective buyer fi nd the listing more easily, and you won’t waste time in showing the house to someone who isn’t interested – “it is important to fi nd a good trade-off,” he said. He also pointed to the importance of choosing the right portal for your audience. Mr Taylor had a similar view - his top tip was to remember that “the way you market online depends on the buyer you are trying to reach.” Indeed, there is no point in putting your property onto Juwai. com, for example, if you’re not trying to target Chinese buyers.
Whoever your audience might be – whether it is a specifi c market, price or house – there will certainly be a portal that is suitable for your property. Yes, it will be time consuming, but data-feed websites are there to cater for this. From reaching an extensive buyer- audience to targeting the right one, and even showcasing the best photos, property portals are a vital tool in the property industry. Don’t be the one to lose out, while others are reaping the benefi ts!
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