New products and services continue to be released, and this week's edition is a big one! Here are the latest updates we've spotted...
The Australian challenger portal Homely.com.au has launched its new social media amplification tool, Homely Promoter.
Homely Promoter is available to the portal's Homely Plus customers and allow agents to make automated feature listing ads which are published straight to social media platforms. The idea is for these ads to reach home hunters off-site where they spend time and boost conversion rates.
According to a press release, the tool was built with the collaboration of an unnamed "award-winning international technology partner" and is differentiated from similar portal tools as it balances customisation with "scalable ad serving". The portal claims that Homely Promoter delivered an average of 5x more views to listings on the portal in beta testing.
“Driving value for our agent partners is a core strategic pillar for us at Homely. Our social boosting product is another way we are harnessing technology, data and insights to not just drive traffic to listings, but genuinely help our agents build their businesses.” said Adam Spencer, Co-CEO and Co-Founder.
“Meta tells us people spend upwards of 3-4 hours a day on social media but only around 1 hour on portals. There is a huge opportunity to capture this audience outside the portal environment with property they are interested in, says Amanda McEniry, Head of Marketing at Homely. “It is not just expensive but it’s also incredibly time consuming for agent offices to ensure their listings are presented to the right audiences in an effective and memorable way.”
French portal giant SeLoger's office and businesses arm has added a search function for commercial spaces available for coworking and office rentals.
Interestingly, the portal already has more offices and coworking ads than any other type (including warehouses and land)
The Group says that it received a 21% increase in requests for coworking and flex offices on Seloger's commercial portal (SeLoger Bureuax & Commerces), as well as a 38% increase in the number of leads and contacts generated via the portal.
SeLoger reported that demand for operational office spaces is broader than that for coworking spaces.
British challenger portal Jitty has shipped one of its "most requested features" this week, adding a smart search filter for properties in the UK that have a dedicated (or potential) workspace within the searchers' budget.
Jitty's AI-facilitated platform will now show searchers applicable properties from their digital floorplans without the need to manually check each listing's images individually.
Graham Paterson, co-founder and CEO at Jitty, said:
"Most people want a space to work from home, but finding a home with an office is surprisingly hard.
"If you want two beds plus an office do you search for three beds homes and risk missing something cheaper? Do you search for two bed homes and check every one for an office? Or do you use the "office" keyword search and see all the fun ways it's been shoehorned into the property description?
"As of today, with Jitty you can search for '2 beds + office' and we'll show you every home with 2 bedrooms and an office, as well as 3 bedroom homes within your budget."
Read Online Marketplaces' interview with Paterson here.
UK challenger portal OneDome is now offering unlimited, free digital KYC and AML checks for estate agents using its services.
Agents will have access to banking-grade compliance tools used by the likes of Barclays and Revolut, including identity verification, document authentication, and comprehensive AML screening.
Babek Ismayil, CEO at OneDome, said:
"The cost of KYC and AML checks disproportionately affects smaller agents due to volume.
"Through our platform’s high volume of checks, we benefit from favourable rates, enabling us to offer them for free to the agents we collaborate with."
Agribusiness PropTech and marketplace Cocampo has launched its Atlas mapping tool that provides information about land listed on the marketplace.
Atlas makes it possible to both interactively view and explore plots of land in Spain in three ways: by location, but tax reference, and by coordinates.
In essence, Atlas therefore aggregates publicly available data about land and presents it to buyers and sellers in a user-friendly way.
Regina Coca, CEO and co-founder at Cocampo, said:
"Atlas is a new way of eploring and discovering properties on sale.
"Once you have located the property of your interest on the map, you can consult relevant details, such as its surface area, average slope, climatic and geographical aspects, as well as data related to renewable energy [its potential for solar power generation, for example], such as the location of the nearest electrical substations."
Cocampo charges users €1 to see listings on Atlas as a screening mechanism and to build a list of qualified leads.
The startup has also added a GPT plugin to make it easier for less "tech-savvy" users (most farm owners in Spain are aged 65 and over) to generate listings for their land.
Online Marketplaces spoke to Regina Coca earlier this year. Read the interview here.
Dubai-based BeHomes has added a mortgage application tool for buyers looking to simplify the mortgage process.
BeHomes has partnered with 17 banks to provide the service, as well as integrating an AI-assisted mortgage calculator.
BeHomes is an end-to-end CRM brokerage system for circa 4,500 real estate agents and brokers who work with the likes of Bayut, Dubizzle and Property Finder, centralizing listings from all these major platforms—and off-market opportunities from developers—into one app.
Saudi Arabia-based property company Wasalt has signed a deal with Mada Arab Real Estate Appraisal whereby the latter will be able to use Wasalt's AI-assisted software to appraise and evaluate properties.
Wasalt's platform boasts verified listings and the marketplace only works with professional realtors. It offers a matchmaking service, an investment assistant, listings for sale and rent, and also runs public and private auctions for some listings.
Wasalt's website says it receives over two million website visits per month and also has over 50,000 real estate listings on its marketplace.
The US iBuyer Opendoor has announced a partnership with brokerage firm eXp Realty. The partnership will see Opendoor's cash offer solution made available to eXp's network of around 90,000 agents who will be able to offer sellers the option of selling direct to the iBuyer instead of going through a traditional sale.
“Once I went into the portal and said that my clients had accepted the Opendoor offer, it was the smoothest, easiest process after that,” said Ellen Pool, eXp Realty agent in Houston, Texas. “The Opendoor option will be part of every single one of my listing presentations going forward. You never know what someone’s going to say yes to until you ask them.”
The partnership is similar to the ones that the Arizona-based iBuyer has struck with portal companies Zillow and Realtor.com and allows sellers to get a preliminary offer in minutes.
Opendoor recently revealed that it generated 55% less revenue in 2023 than in the previous year while reducing losses from $1.4 billion to $275 million.
The real estate portal business Aqarmap has launched a new version of its Saudi Arabian mobile app. The app has a new AI-powered AVM feature which the company claims can estimate the value per square meter of any property in the country.
Aqarmap was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Egypt where it also operates a real estate marketplace business. Recently the company has made a big push to establish itself in the Saudi Arabian market.
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