Ravi Chandran
New regional aggregator site launched by List Sotheby’s International Realty (List SIR) to cater to demands of new consumers
The number of people using the internet has been growing over the years. In today’s increasingly connected world, businesses are rapidly changing to meet the demands to the new consumer.
Spurred by an ever-changing digital landscape and new consumption patterns, List Sotheby’s International Realty (List SIR) has launched a new regional aggregator site – www.lsirglobal.com would bring hundreds of property listings from across six countries and territories under one roof.
As part of the company’s on-going strategy to develop new digital marketing platforms and property technology (or Prop Tech) tools, List SIR has developed an entire ecosystem to see through the entire customer journey in real estate. The fully integrated new regional aggregator site utilises digital technology to create, replicate and deliver content across multiple platforms.
The new regional aggregator site includes a central property listing system named Global Listing Aggregation Management or GLAM system, which encompasses an end-to-end journey of a property listing and vastly improved the efficiency of the company.
In addition, the system enables List SIR to do data analysis to better understand the consumers through various user touch points, thereby increasing interaction, engagement and conversion rates. In later phases, the system will be able to make personalised recommendations based on its learnings.
Digital marketing has always been a key differentiator of List SIR. The Singapore office, for instance, has won a 5 Star award in the Best Real Estate Agency Website category at the prestigious Asia Pacific Property Awards 2019-2020 for its website www.listsothebysrealty.sg.
Recognising that Asia has seen the biggest increase in ultra-high-net worth individuals, List SIR sees the new regional aggregator site as a gateway to investors looking for opportunities in the region. The user can find properties in all the cities that List SIR has presence in, ultimately drawing a connection to the dream home through the story of each property.
The design and placements of web elements are incorporated thoughtfully in the new regional aggregator site to improve user experiences. Besides enjoying the convenience of finding properties from the various cities, users can also use the search function of the website to make their quest for their dream home more efficient. Visitors can do searches via cities, types of real estate such as landed properties and luxury apartments as well as price range.
Mr Paul Ho, chief mortgage officer at iCompareLoan, said, “the real estate industry is rapidly changing, and customers expect better experiences and turn-around-time when they purchase a property. This new regional aggregator site by List SIR is a drive towards innovation for the benefit of customers.”
In keeping up with proptech revolution that is exploding everywhere, property agents “must upgrade or die”, said Mr Ho. He noted that many property agencies struggle to keep up with all the regulatory changes in the industry, as well as the changing financial calculations for acquiring a property. He urged property agents to master the basics in property financing, refinancing, taxation and CPF.
Mr Ho said that iCompareLoan.com runs a full 2 – 3 days course on how property agents can produce such reports for their customers. He added that the trademarked course teaches Property Agents how to generate complicated Financial calculations using – Home Loan Report (TM) – in 3 mins flat. This helps Property agents to close deals faster and serve customers more professionally.
Proptech is technology and real estate coming together to propel the real estate industry forward. The proptech ecosystem is flourishing now in many parts of the world, thanks in large part to ample venture capital, community efforts in local tech hubs, and an increasing realisation that there is a real need for innovation in the sector.
Proptech will have an impact on traditional business operating models. Whether this impact turns out to be positive or negative depends largely on how real estate players will use them to their advantage. These technologies are however still a long way away from replacing human judgment, touch, and ability to react to dynamic changes, which are all critical to the decision-making process.
A recent research report by Cushman & Wakefield (C&W) said, “proptech will be used to drive tenant experience. A smart building can drive operational performance but it can also enhance human experience. Without tenants, a building as an asset will perform poorly, regardless of how operationally efficient it may be, or the amount of capital growth targeted. This change is already being recognised, with tenant experience a top-three driver. As operational efficiency increasingly comes under control, we expect the next wave of proptech to focus on satisfying the future needs of the occupier, wherever and however they choose to work.”
C&W added that the overarching opportunity in proptech adoption is to generate data-driven reporting more quickly, which in turn will facilitate more insightful decision making. Doing this will link the building to the corporate occupier and ultimately to the asset’s financial performance in a clearer, more systematic way.
“Surprisingly, respondents told us there is comparatively little concern around security, privacy or the complexity of the task at hand. Undoubtedly data encryption and storage have become increasingly secure, though data breaches remain a regular part of the media cycle.
“Lesser concerns on security risk may result from the perceived lack of value in the data to potential hackers. However, we argue the focus should be on securing access to a building’s management system rather than the actual data it logs.”
