The $225 billion Chinese internet and social media group Tencent has announced the creation of an international real estate marketplace with its new partner, the Chinese property website Juwai.com.
The online marketplace, haiwai.house.qq.com, will be hosted on Tencent’s real estate platform, which currently has 800 million combined users from Chinese social media applications QQ and WeChat, according to a Juwai.com press release.
Tencent operates China’s equivalents of WhatsApp, Facebook, Spotify, Kindly and ApplePay and although Haiwai will be hosted on its platform, Juwai was responsible for creating the channel, it’s content and the back-end system. The Chinese property site will also serve the users, answer their inquiries and connect them to properties.
Yu Kai, General Manager of Tencent Real Estate, said the channel will service the demand for international property from Chinese buyers.
“With the growth of China’s export-oriented economy, with both travellers and students more often going abroad, and with the domestic property market appearing overvalued, we see a significant increase in demand for overseas property,” Kai said.
“Juwai.com is now an important part of our real estate offering. By making Juwai.com’s international property content available to Tencent’s audience, Chinese consumers will be empowered to make informed investment decisions.”
Charles Pittar, CEO of Juwai.com, said the new channel was a one-stop shop for Chinese buyers.
“Tencent has created a full-fledged real estate marketplace that includes new and second-hand homes in China, financing, home improvement and, now, homes in other countries – courtesy of Juwai.com.
“Partnerships are a vital part of Juwai.com’s growth strategy in China, and it is hard to imagine a better partner than Tencent.
“Over the last half decade or more, Chinese consumers have gone from being nearly invisible in international property markets to being the numberone buyers in almost every country and continent.
“For our international partners and advertisers, the alliance between Juwai.com and Tencent means more traffic, more transactions and more brand building in the crucial Chinese market.”
