Vietnam – Houze, a proptech startup in Vietnam that offers a fully integrated real estate ecosystem for agents and customers through its offline-to-online platform, has raised a $2m of funding led by DKRA Group, giving the company resources to continue expanding its services and growing its team to meet the demand in Vietnam and beyond.
Houze has created a multi-platform for both real-estate agents and home-buyers, offering integrated services from the transaction, management, investment, and financing options. It features services such as Houze Agent (digital brokerage), Houze Commerce (property management platform under SaaS), and Houze Invest (Fintech resulted from real estate), amongst others. All these services are integrated and linked in Houze, providing a seamless experience for its users, and managing to combine the elements into one unique platform.
The newly secured funding will be used in completing the leadership team, as well as enhancing the core products. In addition, it will be used for the strategic partnership with Vietnam’s real estate service brand DKRA Group, which creates the advantage of exclusive inventories and enhances battlefield experience in the real estate industry in the country
Houze said that it is also in the process of closing an additional fund with venture capital to launch new products such as Houze Portal, Houze Super App, and Houze Finance.
Pham Lam, Houze’s founder, said, “Technology will disrupt geographical limitations and human capital, closing the gap between agents and home-buyers and professionalise the brokerage community.”
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Tropicana Corporation, property developer in Malaysia; together with digital-first agency Lion & Lion, has released a new short film to showcase Tropicana’s brand promise and tagline of ‘Redefining the Art of Living’ in a meaningful way to its target audience of potential homeowners.
The 55-second film succinctly elaborates on the fact that homes fulfil the emotional and social needs of the homeowner, which extend beyond the physical needs provided by a house. Lion & Lion said the message aligns closely with Tropicana’s product offerings which focus on nine aspects – accessibility, connectivity, innovative concepts and designs, generous open spaces, amenities, facilities, multi-tiered security and quality. Each residential property of Tropicana is surrounded by amenities such as schools, green spaces, recreational facilities, and commercial or retail outlets to create a sense of community and homeliness.
“We’re excited to be part of this campaign with Tropicana as it’s an opportunity for us to further express its tagline in a more meaningful way. We believe the purpose of this film goes above and beyond, for the brand and its customers, as we want people to not just buy a house, but believe in the brand like never before,” says Adrian Ng, creative group head of Lion & Lion Malaysia.
As the first stage in the agency’s overall branding campaign, the film – launched on Tropicana’s Facebook, Instagram and YouTube platforms – will be supplemented with social media content, on-ground marketing materials and digital assets to give a fresh new look to the Tropicana brand that puts its dedication to building homes at the forefront.
Manila, Philippines – Professional services and investment management firm Colliers has recently appointed Rodel Ambas as the new head of marketing and communications for Colliers Philippines, effective immediately.
Ambas will continue to implement Colliers’ brand guidelines to ensure that all of the firm’s marketing and communications efforts are consistent and well aligned with their core values and vision, collaborating with stakeholders to drive exceptional results.
Prior to his new role, he was with consulting firm Pinnacle Consulting as the head of marketing, where he was responsible for the property listings and customer service teams to ensure that the company’s branding, communications and performance marketing initiatives are well aligned and executed.
Before joining Colliers, he also had experience with companies like real estate marketplaces ZipMatch and Lamudi, and has provided consulting for various companies to help boost their content and public relations strategies to earn PR mileage through events and regular seeding of press releases.
Speaking about the recent appointment, Richard Raymundo, managing director for Philippines at Colliers, said, “I am confident that Rodel will contribute to leading our industry into the future given his enterprising and collaborative spirit. This will further strengthen Colliers’ branding and positioning in Philippine real estate.”
Meanwhile, Michelle Doyle-Jones, director of marketing and communications for Asia at Colliers, commented, “We are excited to have Rodel join our team to lead and further strengthen the Colliers brand in the Philippines. His relevant experience in real estate will certainly help us to drive exceptional results to accelerate the success of our clients and our people.”
Singapore – To draw attention to the launch of its latest luxury residential development Midtown Modern, regional property company GuocoLand has launched a new out-of-home (OOH) campaign to entice customers with a walk inspired by nature aesthetics and real estate luxury.
Developed in collaboration with Moove Media, the OOH campaign is placed at Bugis MRT, which utilizes the linkway between the Downtown Line (DTL) and East-West Line (EWL) with wall mural and floor stickers of the development and extensive greenery to provide commuters with an immersive garden experience Additionally, the soothing sounds of nature with running water and bird calls bring an oasis of calm to the bustling thoroughfare. The campaign with Moove Media extends to in-carriage window stickers on DTL trains.
In addition, a large ambient billboard greets commuters with an eye-catching aerial view of Midtown Modern’s twin towers and its grand lawn at the Bugis MRT EWL escalators. The media space at the EWL escalators is managed by SMRT Media.
Dora Chng, general manager (Residential) at GuocoLand, said: “With Midtown Modern located directly above the Bugis MRT interchange, the OOH campaign was vital to capture commuter mindshare and introduce a unique nature in the city living concept.”
GuocoLand aims to bring Midtown Modern’s message of garden homes in the city to tenants, shoppers, residents and members of the public at its flagship integrated development Guoco Tower in the CBD. Guoco Tower is directly connected to Tanjong Pagar MRT.
“OOH was also instrumental in building high visibility with commuters and complemented our omnichannel marketing strategy across print, digital and social media. We are delighted that the response from partners and customers to the OOH and integrated marketing campaign has been overwhelmingly positive,” Chng added.
From 3 June to 14 July, the next phase of the OOH campaign goes digital with a creative video to be displayed on the 6-metre Wonderwall at Dhoby Ghaut MRT interchange, which reaches commuters of three MRT lines – North-East, North-South and Circle Line. Commuters will be brought on a mesmerizing journey through Midtown Modern’s lush and spacious landscaping, colourful forests, and thoughtful amenities through video.
Sydney, Australia – Lendlease, the integrated real estate and investment group, is expanding its advertising platform and will bring in-house the management of its small-format digital advertising across its shopping centers and urban retail precincts.
Up until now, Lendlease has outsourced its small-format digital advertising in its shopping centers to out-of-home advertising agencies. With this new change in management, it is going to be one of the few shopping center landlords to take this platform in-house.
Lendlease’s internal sales team will now oversee content for local and direct campaigns, while its partners, oOh!media and Shopper Media Group will manage content for national agency campaigns.
By the middle of this year, in collaboration with its technology partner SureVision, Lendlease will have rolled out 107 small formal digital panels across six shopping centers including the following:
Southlands Boulevard, Willerton WA (National sales partner, oOh!media)
Northgate Shopping Centre, Geraldton WA (National sales partner, Shopper Media Group)
Menai Marketplace, Menai NSW (National sales partner, Shopper Media Group)
Settlement City, Port Macquarie NSW (National sales partner, Shopper Media Group)
Lendlease will roll out a further 270 panels across its other shopping centers and urban retail precincts by 2023.
The company said that the new panels will provide it with added benefit of valuable data analytics using facial recognition technology to measure metrics including age, gender and customer dwell time.
The expansion of its media operations follows the successful rollout of Lendlease’s large-format network across its retail assets, which in 2016 started with just 10 screens and have now grown to 22.
Sally Harding, the general Manager of pop up & media commercialization at lendlease, said that retailers in its shopping centers will benefit from working with the company directly on their campaigns, instead of going through an external advertising agency since retailers already know them and that they understand their business needs. On the customer side, meanwhile, they will be benefitting from having more content that’s relevant to them and their local community.
“As shopping centers evolve to meet the changing needs of consumers, we’re looking for opportunities to grow our revenue streams. We’ve had such success with our large-format network, it made sense to expand our in-house advertising platform to include small-format advertising,” commented Harding.
Singapore – PropNex, a Singapore-based real estate company, is releasing its very own version of the popular board game Monopoly called ‘Monopoly Propnex Edition’ in an aim to introduce insights of the local residential market through gamification.
PropNex has likewise partnered with the digital experiential version of the game in Singapore, called ‘Monopoly Explore! SG’, which allows players to explore Singapore through its landmarks, local products, and to even win prizes.
For the company, the board game will allow the common populace to get a sense and reality of the Singaporean real estate market. Furthermore, it will allow players to experience cash flow management and effective techniques of real estate investments as a lifelong skill, which brings families together in cultivating the wisdom of financial prudence and investment skills.
“Through playing the MONOPOLY PROPNEX EDITION, PropNex is confident that players young and old will have a better grasp of [the] property market in Singapore and as well as a deeper understanding of financial prudence necessary to own their first property or multiple properties. In the game of four to five players per round, as soon as two players go bankrupt, the player with the highest worth of assets will emerge the winner,” the company said in a press statement.
The upcoming physical version of the Monopoly Propnex Edition is targeted at Singaporean consumers, with tutorial videos about the gameplay already available online.
A snapshot of the physical version of the Monopoly Propnex Edition
According to the company, the Monopoly Propnex Edition is curated to bring out the essence of the ‘Singapore flavor’, which provides a deeper understanding of the property market, namely what constitutes the Core Central Region (CCR), Rest of Central Region (RCR) and Outside Central Region (OCR) segments, as well as highlighting the various challenges that investors have to overcome in owning multiple properties complying to various cooling measures currently in place.
For Ismail Gafoor, CEO of PropNex, the board game development is traced back to his desire of bringing the board game to every household in Singapore in order to teach the basics of real estate.
“I did not realize that the numerous games played as a family has significantly imprinted on my passion for properties, as PropNex today has fulfilled the aspirations of thousands of homeowners in their dream homes and investments, with the guidance of over 8,900 salespersons. It took my management team and me more than a year to conceptualize and bring this Monopoly PropNex Edition idea to fruition today, and we are excited for Singaporeans to come on board this journey with us,” Gafoor explained.
PropNex has been ramping up its objective of consumer education about the real estate industry since 2013 when they launched the Consumer Empowerment Campaign, which aimed at keeping their consumers informed of the trends and market outlooks that will affect their real estate decisions. They have also hosted virtual property shows and launched a membership program called PropNex Friends, where members can enjoy exclusive deals and rewards from Propnex itself.
The board game is up for sale at PropNex’s website for S$49.99 or S$42.99 for members of PropNex Friends.
Singapore – Following the company’s expansion to the Philippine market, Singapore-based proptech company Ohmyhome is extending its cross-border transaction solution to the country.
The recent company ensures property buyers and investors from Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines to conduct property deals, while ensuring local agents will work on their parts in these deals. Such cross-border transaction solutions enable foreign investors to rely on trusted local agents to transact on the deal, unlike on the traditional way of hiring third-party agents which may pose trust issues on transacting a property deal.
“The problems in cross-border real estate transactions have been around for a long time. We saw an opportunity to bring value to our customers in this overlooked area of the market by leveraging on our unique strengths as a regional proptech company. Having knowledgeable agents on both sides present at the same time and working together in the customer’s best interest provides a reliable and hassle-free experience for our cross-border customers’ real estate journey,” Rhonda Wong, CEO of Ohmyhome stated.
She also added that Singaporeans have always inquired about Philippine property investments, and since then the company has dealt regularly with Singaporean customers in regards to property deals.
“With Ohmyhome’s unique agency model where every agent works as a full-time professional and not as a freelancer, customers can be assured that no effort is spared in getting the best investment for their cross-border property deals,” Wong said.
Singapore – Virtual tour software company Matterport announced its new partnership with Singapore-based real estate agency ERA Singapore to test out new cost-effective ways of providing 3D virtual tours of properties.
With the recent partnership, ERA Singapore’s ongoing push for virtual home viewings will be integrated to Matterport’s “digital twin” feature that allows a more comprehensive and prospective view of the property through 3D walkthroughs, proximate measurements, and understanding of the property’s flow and space.
ERA agents may have the option of scheduling with a Matterport agent to scan the property and render the model in 24 hours, or agents may scan the property themselves using Matterport cameras. Aside from that, ERA agents will have the chance to be up-to-date on materials and training on virtual technology focused on real estate marketing. Through these webinars, ERA agents can learn how to use highlight reels and auto-generated multimedia that can be shared with prospective clients and on social media.
“We’re excited to be partnering with ERA as a key part of their virtual strategy. Matterport technology will open up new levels of engagement for clients anywhere in the world at any time. The current situation globally has shown how important and impactful 3D capture technology is, and with forward-thinking real estate companies like ERA leading the charge, digital twins are quickly becoming a standard in real estate,” said Bruce Wells, managing director of Matterport APAC.
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