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Staff Reporter
REA Group has announced plans to launch a new Chinese language property site to broaden its audience to Chinese consumers.
The new site is called ‘My Fun’ which translates to ‘buy property’ in Mandarin and allows Australian property listings to be viewed by Chinese buyers.
With an early 2014 launch, myfun.com will offer Chinese consumers a customised site experience initially featuring residential property listings, new apartments, land estates, and house and land packages.
REA Group said the site would provide a new opportunity for Australian property owners, with the increased exposure of property listings likely to encourage competition, reduce the number of days on market and generate higher sale prices.
REA Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Greg Ellis said the initiative had been driven out of market demands in Australia and China.
“Australia is experiencing unprecedented levels of demand from Chinese consumers in the residential, commercial and new development property markets.
“We wanted to create a customised user experience for Chinese consumers to ensure they could access relevant information in a format that would suit their property search requirements.
“All property listings are provided in Mandarin and property enquiries will be directed to a Chinese-based myfun.com representative who will connect potential buyers to the property’s Australian real estate agent.
“Currently, the average time a property is on the market in Australia is approximately 55 days. Our real estate agent customers continually tell us that they’re looking for opportunities to increase visibility of their property listings and deliver a quick sale and strong result to their vendors.
Mr Ellis added that the site provided agents the opportunity to reach a new and engaged segment of prospective buyers.
This will be the second operation for REA Group in Asia, which also operates market-leading property listing and information site Squarefoot.com.hk in Hong Kong.
Mr Ellis said: “This is a really exciting opportunity to connect to a new set of consumers and bring value to our Australian customers and to property owners.”
The announcement of the new site follows the release of REA Group's quarterly financial information which reveals the company's revenue for three months ending September 30 has grown by $21 million.
Using dedicated websites to attract international investors has become a standard tool in the industry with various agencies launching or leveraging off global sites to capitalise on this market.
In July this year, independent agency Toop&Toop launched ToopGlobal to connect with international buyers in their own language.
RE/MAX have RE/MAX Global, which feeds through properties from countries in over 35 languages and over 30 currencies.
LJ Hooker signed an exclusive agreement earlier this year with Chinese property website Juwai.com to sell Australian and New Zealand properties to Chinese buyers.
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