Juwai IQI Ties Up Partnerships in Mongolia and Portugal

The pan-Asian real estate technology group Juwai IQI has announced that it has signed deals in Mongolia and Portugal as it goes about its mission to make Asian home buyers 'citizens of the world'.

Inroads into Mongolia: 'one of the best destinations in Asia for property ownership'

The Mongolian deal sees Juwai IQI team up with the Digital Classifieds Group-owned property portal Oly.mn as well as leading realtor franchise RE/MAX Mongolia. Oly.mn will represent Juwai IQI in Mongolia through its platform exclusively under associate partner status while both Oly.mn and RE/MAX Mongolia will adopt the Juwai IQI brand and technology.

RE/MAX Mongolia is one of the largest franchise groups in the country counting some 55 offices and 1,000 agents. Under the partnership's terms, Oly.mn and RE/MAX will also benefit from free syndication of property listings across all three companies' websites with Juwai IQI's 6 million listings around the world now available to be displayed to wealthy Mongolian investors on the portal.

Speaking about the partnership, Juwai IQI Group Co-Founder and CEO Kashif Ansari said: “The expansion into Mongolia via our partnership with Oly.mn and RE/MAX Mongolia makes it easier for us to help investors from other countries who want to purchase real estate in Mongolia and at the same time, help Mongolians invest in property overseas. By operating under the Juwai IQI Mongolia brand, we will not only expand the brand's global reach, but it also reinforces our continued focus on technology and pioneering the real estate experience in international markets.”

The Mongolian market is apparently a very attractive one for Asian property investors because of the country's tax policies, lack of exchange controls and buyers' rights. The deal with Digital Classifieds Group (which also owns and operates portal sites in Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Laos) represents the latest in a string of international deals made to increase inventory and brand footprint for a company that recently reported impressive transaction numbers and a first profitable year.

The first expansion of the IQI network into mainland Europe

Also announced today by the Kuala Lumpur-headquartered group was an expansion of the company's IQI real estate agency network into Portugal. The move represents a significant first step into mainland Europe in a country where a reported €4.8 billion has been spent on property by Asian investors since 2012. MA Universe’s Gonçalo Pereira is now Chief Executive Officer of IQI Portugal, Elena Tsvet is Chief Operating Officer, and Maria Firmino is Chief Marketing Officer.

Juwai IQI Co-Founder and Group Executive Chairman Georg Chmiel said: “As part of our group, IQI Portugal can use our platform to improve performance on both the supply and the demand side. They get the benefits of our 5.5 million monthly active users, more than 15,000 agents, 6 million annual listings, the two leading Asian portals for international property, and the real estate super-app, ATLAS. Juwai IQI is a technology company in the real estate business. We will put all these tools into the hands of the team at the new IQI Portugal, helping them become even more effective.”

Newly minted IQI Portugal CEO, Gonçalo Pereira said: “Before, we operated alone. Now, we are part of a global team that gives us the most advanced real estate technology and access to a worldwide network of agents in the most popular markets.
We are thrilled to create IQI Portugal and join the Juwai IQI real estate technology group. “As IQI Portugal, we can provide better service to local buyers, sellers and developers. We will link overseas-based property buyers with Portuguese real estate and Portuguese buyers with both local and overseas real estate.”

Asian property hunters will now have IQI teams on the ground in Lisbon, Porto and Algarve with connections to both the local real estate and citizenship services.  The foray into Portugal is likely to be the first of several Juwai IQI inroads into European markets as Chinese investors become an increasingly important source of capital in European real estate markets.