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Digital Domains
In a world where anything can be purchased at the click of a mouse, how is the real estate industry responding?
| Text : Elizabeth Kerr | Photo : www.thinkstockphotos.com |
What was the last book you bought and more importantly, where did you buy it? Did you go into a Dymocks and peruse the bestseller aisle? Or did you boot up the laptop and peruse Amazon.com? How about music, shoes, bookshelves or groceries? There’s no denying that shopping online has become a convenient and very often life-saving way to get what one wants or needs (trying wearing women’s 42 shoe in Hong Kong) — and in some cases anonymity is a blessing. You can do your taxes and trade stocks online, which leaves little untapped e-commerce territory to exploit.
No one really expects buyers or renters to blindly lay down millions of dollars for a house they saw online. But like everything else, e-commerce, webs pages, networking sites and mobile applications are becoming more and more important as the days go by. No one has a mobile phone anymore; it has to be an iPhone 4 or some other PDA with every function imaginable short of launching the space shuttle. For businesses it’s a case of get wired or get left behind.
Certainly a digital presence is key for, say, movie theatre chains. But what about real estate agencies? How digital are they? A quick Google search reveals property agencies at every level of the market have some kind of web presence. Type in “global real estate agents” and you’ll get 1.9 million hits in .23 seconds. That doesn’t mean all sites are created equal. When the property market moves at the speed of light, a user-friendly, efficient website is key to finding random browsers and getting them to send an email or pick up the phone. Yes. Pick up the phone. It seems property sales aren’t going totally digital just yet.
“Young professionals now — in their 30s, 40s, and even 50s — can’t live without their Google searches. We want people to get used to our website for whatever reason,” explains Amous Lee, Director of International Investment at Knight Frank Hong Kong. He’s referring to Knight Frank’s new award-winning website (Global Residential Search), which officially came online in May. With the re-designed site, Knight Frank is attempting to become the go-to site for worldwide high-end property information — the IMDB of real estate at it were. Much of that is born of client demand, the speed at which the property industry moves, and the fundamentally global nature of the property arena and its buyers, sellers and leasers. Lee thinks a user-friendly, efficient website is vital to property sales for any agency now. It’s often the first step in any purchasing decisions for increasingly informed consumers, and Knight Frank’s website has seen hits triple since the May launch. “We have so many different properties, it’s really difficult to print that out for a client. Especially now, most buyers do some homework before they approach you. You probably do the same thing before you buy a computer,” Lee reasons.
To Lee’s mind, digital tools are simply another service that can be offered to clients — not a service in lieu of anything else, and there’s likely to be little automation in sales and rental agreements. “Rental clients relocating to Hong Kong will of course start their home search online from their country of origin,” says Julia Pollard, Associate Director and Head of Leasing for Hong Kong Sotheby’s International Realty. “But very rarely will someone make adecision without actually visiting their rental home.” For Knight Frank, Sotheby’s and agencies like them, a strong web presence and some additional toys make serving their clientele easier, but that’s as far as a computer can go. “Sometimes clients don’t call on a Saturday or Sunday because they don’t think you’re working,” Lee states. “But then they get a call [off an email they sent] and most are surprised at the fast reply. The impression of getting that immediate attention has been taken care of.” Which is the ultimate purpose of the website for Lee.
Knight Frank isn’t alone in getting into the iPhone app game, but it was one of the first. The advantage of the app lays in its speedy dissemination of information. As Lee puts it, “It’s mobile. It’s so easy to carry around and show off pictures and such. But those that subscribe to the apps are seriously interested in property; they subscribe to the alerts. Property goes fast, especially in Hong Kong so it’s all about speed.” Even Pollard can tip her hat to Knight Frank’s latest tool. “I saw Knight Frank’s ad [about their apps] and I think it’s a brilliant idea. In an age where everyone is so busy, at least if they can [point their Blackberry at a sign] they can get a floorplan downloaded, some pictures of the interior, they’re that much closer to making a decision. If you’re customer service focused, which we [Sotheby’s] are, it’s all about making things as easy and smooth as possible.”
High-end properties attract two kinds of buyers: people that want to live in or frequently vacation in a villa or urban apartment, and investors. Investors are a better market segment for a digitalised real estate industry because of the purpose of their purchases. Pollard points out that investment purchasers are comfortable buying off a flat-plan from a developer they trust, and Lee agrees, stating “I run international investments and [years ago] I needed to advertise in newspapers before I could generate calls, or have the old open house. Something. But I don’t need that as much now.” To find a property in Bali for a buyer in Switzerland is more efficient and provides more opportunities for everyone if there’s an RSS feed involved.
But flesh-and-blood agents and getting onto a property will never be replaced. On that, Lee and Pollard are also in agreement. “Website technology can only do so much. I think a human relationship that’s comfortable and stable … it’s nothing like buying a PC or clothes,” Lee states confidently. “Most times property is the most expensive asset of your life. Clients always feel comfortable talking to someone … Knight Frank is based on the idea that people are our most important assets. Technology is a tool to help them.” Pollard is a little more succinct. “How do I put this? When [you] purchase anything, and it’s the same with real estate, you’re not going to buy online. You want to go in there and feel it, smell it, touch it. As long as we can put across on the website what we have, people are still going to come out and talk to our agents.”
As with banking and finance, most up-market investors still call private bankers for major decisions, and Lee believes the aforementioned stock trading caters to smaller investors selling 3,000 stocks; top investors still have advisors and that hold for property too. That’s not to say a James Bond 3D virtual tour moment isn’t coming — but it will remain relegated to first glance interest. Lee: “To sign on the dotted line, you still need to fly down and have a look.”
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