Korean Rental Specialist ZipToss Enters Strategic Partnership with Blockchain Services Provider Agit

Korean real estate trading platform ZipToss has teamed up with real estate services provider Agit to move closer to the blockchain.

ZipToss is a specialist, regulated rental platform for foreign (specifically Chinese and English-language) tenants moving to Seoul, while Agit is an alliance of companies that provides real estate services including contracts, moving, and cleaning via blockchain technology.

The two companies will jointly develop blockchain-based products and services linked to real estate electronic contracts and brokerage services. They will also actively promote each other through marketing to increase awareness and competitiveness for each respective platform.

The partnership will also see ZipToss and Agit collaborate on developing new business models related to housing, living, and leisure and recruiting strategic partners.

Jaeyoon Lee, CEO at ZipToss, said:

"We plan to maximize the know-how accumulated through various challenges in the real estate brokerage market over the past 8 years from 2015 by joining the Agit Alliance.

"We will gather our capabilities to become a market leader through non-face-to-face electronic contracts and customized brokerage based on actual products."

The Korean housing market is interesting because it is dominated by its vast number of brokerages—where most housing buildings have their own designated brokers.

ZipToss' move into more tech-savvy services does somewhat mirror similar business expansions by another major Korean player, Zigbang, made last year; Agit also offers internet of things (IoT) services similar to the Samsung SDS' IoT unit.