EDITORS LETTER OPP China Words | Mina Mu
Planning for portals R
ecent news that LJ Hooker signed a three-year strategic partnership with Chinese property listing portal Juwai. com – which is the top portal for international property in China – has drawn the attention of the overseas real estate industry. This is not the fi rst collaboration between them. They had a previous one-year agreement, during which LJ Hooker experienced a growth of 30% in calls from Chinese estate agents, according to a report on Property Observer.
This interesting news triggered People check portals first
Even though the head offi ces of these portals are usually based in one or two cities, the call and service centres receive calls from all over the country.
At the same time, the ever- increasing use of online portals depends on the general use of the internet and search engines – and changes in consumer behaviour. “Currently, when people would like to buy products, ranging from as big as a car or house to as small as daily consumer goods, searching on the internet is the fi rst thought coming to most people’s mind,
The collection of information is much easier
guides, education guides and immigration articles,” said Andrew Taylor, the co-CEO of Juwai. By way of comparison, Yuan Zhao
explained their business model: “We would like to post advertisements for overseas developers/agents for free as a trial for a certain period and give them the confi dence of ongoing collaboration.
my thoughts on the international real estate portals facing the Chinese market.
Online portals could defi nitely increase the number of leads sent to a developer/real estate agent and maximise their market exposure, as mentioned in Candice Ritchie’s OPP article ‘Meet the Listing Legends’ in April 2013. “One of the most important advantages is, compared with the physical real estate/immigration agents, there is no location restriction for the online portal,” said Yuan Zhao, the Sales Director of Youfang Website.
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especially the younger generation,” said Yuan Zhao.
At the same time, people can also compare and sort the price, types, location and all kinds of information about the product they are searching for when doing research on portals. This makes the collection and analysis of information much easier.
Probing into the business models of online portals promoting overseas properties in China, there are basically two kinds, explained Cyrano Huang, the sales director of Sina EJU, another massive online overseas property portal.
“We also give a guarantee of the number of leads generated.” For the investors, most of the online portals for overseas properties in China have their own call centre to deal with sales enquiries. They also provide the services of coordinating with the international developers/agents to arrange house viewing and other post-sale work.
However, it would seem there are still aspects of the business where they could provide even more services – for example, a mortgage broker, a bank or fi nancial services organisation and so on – as a part of one full package.
“We provide our clients with exclusive and tailored services in marketing, sales strategies and campaigns. It will be a package that is designed for specifi c products and clients.” Slightly diff erently, Juwai also keep on focusing on their audience. “We focus on consumers with the fi nancial means and appetite for international property investment. We provide Chinese consumers with diff erent motivations (such as investment, emigration, education and lifestyle) with diff erent editorial stories, market reports, buying
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