New China Real Estate Portal

3 minute read

Listen.

I’m not really sure how to say this.

There’s something I think you need to know, but it involves a marketing client of mine — and I don’t want to seem like I am just spruiking my clients.

So, if you don’t want to hear about a new portal that helps Australian agents and developers reach buyers from China, just stop reading right now. If you read on, and still feel like I put my interests ahead of your interests as a reader, please abuse me in the comments section.

I’ll just talk about the four things that I think are most important for readers of Business2.com.au:

1. First, this news is not relevant to everyone. Advertising to buyers from China is not for every agent. The reason Juwai.com thinks that plenty of Australian agents will want to advertise on their portal is that Chinese buyers make up the fastest-growing buyer group in Australia at the moment. They spent more than $1 billion dollars in 2010 on Australia homes, and probably about $2.9 billion in 2011 — according to the best estimates Juwai.com has been able to make. (This data is not easily to track.)
2. Second, how much does it cost? For now it is free, if you go to juwai.com/advertise. Later, for a single property it will be $50 per month, for 10 properties it’s $100 per month, for up to 250 properties it’s $250 per month. (These are US dollar amounts, which amounts to nearly the same thing in Australian dollars.) Through deals with Thehomepage.com.au and Millionplus.com.au there already tens of thousands of Australian listings on Juwai.com. (In addition to more than a million listings from the US, UK and other countries.)
3. Third, how does it work? Like any portal, this new one has 2 heads: one that talks to the customer and one that talks to the agent. In this case, however, the two heads speak two different languages. The head facing the customer speaks Chinese and is full of all the best portal stuff for the Chinese buyer, like buying guides, news and data, social media tools, etc.
   The other head, facing the agent, speaks English. It works just like the agent admin section on just about any real estate portal you have ever used. And it also translates leads for you, and if you want can translate documents, emails, offers, etc. into English or Chinese.
4. The fourth thing is that this portal operates a call centre for Chinese customers. I found it interesting that the Chinese language is so difficult to type that — instead of sending an e-mail inquiry — people can be more likely to pick up the phone and dial a handful of digits. The call centre answers their questions, and also pre-qualifies leads for agents.

I’ll leave you with a few links to stories that I found in the media about Chinese buyers in Australia. Also, I’ll leave you with my apologies that this post is not in rhyme. (If you have no idea why I just said that, see the World’s First Rhyming Social Media Blog Post.)

• PropetyObserver.com.au: Asian buyers vital to Australian property market: Morry Schwartz
• Real Estate Business:  Mandarin listings a must to reach lucrative Chinese
• The Australian: Chinese buyers underpin housing prices
• Sydney Morning Herald: Chinese millions – and a loophole – keep luxury home market buoyant
• China Daily: Australia is now a hot real estate market for Chinese investors