Juwai.com, an international real estate search and information portal for Mandarin-speaking Chinese consumers, has launched.
Juwai.com is aimed at Chinese buyers of overseas real estate (the Mandarin word "juwai" means "home abroad"). It has more than 1 million property listings from more than 80,000 agents and developers in the U.S., Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and Japan, according to a company announcement last week.
The site also includes Chinese-language editorial content, buying guides, market analyses, social media integration and a call center, the announcement said.
"It’s not enough any longer to just list property in English. Chinese will be the dominant language on the Internet by 2015, and Chinese are among the fastest-growing group of property buyers around the world. We want to help agents market property to Chinese buyers, wherever located," said Andrew Taylor, Juwai.com’s co-founder, in a statement.
Citing figures from the Global Chinese Real Estate Congress, the site said Chinese buyers are expected to purchase $50 billion in overseas real estate in 2012, up from a projected $28 billion in 2011. Of that $28 billion, $10 billion is expected to be spent for U.S. properties.
Juwai.com’s listings come from partnerships with property search portals around the world, including Zoopla.co.uk in the U.K., Thehomepage.com.au in Australia, and select multiple listing services in the U.S., the site said.
For the first two months after launch, real estate professionals will be able to post listings on the site for free, either manually or via bulk upload. In early 2012, the site will offer a variety of paid services, including paid advertisements, special pricing for new developments, and language services.