CBRE Group, Inc. is the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm, with 2018 revenues of $21.3 billion and more than 100,000 employees (excluding affiliate offices). We has been become the Fortune 500 since 2008, and ranked #122 in 2021.
As the world’s largest real estate firm, we have a vast of resources and expertise supporting, together with local experienced international project team to provide you the best-in-class developments and investment portfolios. CBRE is a listed company on the New York Stock Exchange and we are licensed and regulated by the Hong Kong Estate Agents Authority.
Whether for investment or own use, we offer broad range of integrated services, from property sales & investment, letting & management, or even re-sale services etc., we serve you diligently in every important step.
We had the biggest summer internship program to date
Quite amazing for one summer! We thank you all who have supported us and joined us in our efforts to make the real estate digital experience better for all! Still, we haven’t rested on our laurels. We are revamping our blogs and sites to make it an even better place for investors to obtain all the information they need for home search, and we are helping even more companies generate leads and establish their brands.
After this restful weekend, we will get back right at it! Everyone have a good weekend!
To keep up-to-date with what we are doing and sharing, sign up to our newsletter!
Another year is drawing to a close, so we are here again with our year-end special episode. This year has been a dramatic year for many of us. Despite that, our team at Denzity has made some fantastic achievements. Before our send-off into 2021, we’d like to quickly recap what we have achieved in 2020 and what you should expect from us after the holidays. Also, stay tuned to the end for a special announcement!
▶Key Discussion:
Recap on Denzity Insights
Special Announcement
▶ Disclaimer:
This disclaimer informs readers/audience that the views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text/video belong solely to the author & participant, and not necessarily to the participant’s employer, organization, committee or other group or individual.
As it can be difficult to catch some minor errors, transcripts may contain a few typos or inaccuracies.
This might be painfully obvious – Please note the following legal conditions:
Denzity owns the copyright in and to all content in and transcripts of Denzity’s video programs and publications (collectively referred to as “Denzity Materials”, with all rights reserved and its right of publicity.
You are welcome to share the below transcript (up to 500 words but not more) in media articles (e.g., The South China Morning Post, Bloomberg, New York Times), on your website, in a non-commercial article or blog post (e.g., Medium and WordPress), and/or on a personal social media account for non-commercial purposes, provided that you include attribution to “Denzity” and link back to the denzity.io/blog URL. For the sake of clarity, media outlets with advertising models are permitted to use excerpts from the transcript per the above.
No one is authorized to copy any portion of the Denzity Materials or use Denzity’s name, image or likeness for any commercial purpose or use, including without limitation inclusion in any books, e-books, book summaries or synopses, or on a commercial website or social media site (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) that offers or promotes your or another’s products or services.
Alright, let’s get back to the transcript of the show. Enjoy!
▶ Transcript [English & Chinese]
Hey everyone! This is Darren from Denzity.
大家好!我是Denzity的Darren。
Another year is drawing to a close, so we are here again with our year-end special episode. This year has been a dramatic year for many of us. Despite that, our team at Denzity has made some fantastic achievements. Before our send off into 2021, we’d like to quickly recap what we have achieved in 2020 and what you should expect from us after the holidays. Also, stay tuned to the end for a special announcement!
First up: Denzity Insights – we interviewed dozens of experts worldwide for their tips and insights so that you can have a better idea of how the real estate industry works. We realize a great deal of you prefer using online videos to learn about real estate-related topics, and it has been a great success! As of now, we have featured more than 30 experts worldwide (hailing from Hong Kong, Canada, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, the UK, Cambodia, and more). Our videos have also garnered over 7,000 views and accumulated more than 350 hours of watch time in total. That’s awesome! Thanks to you all, we are considering adding a second season to explore even more areas of real estate. If you are a real estate expert, and want to be featured on our channel, please contact us! We are expanding to more topics – looking at property categories like industrial and hospitality, digging deep into market trends, and discovering opportunities such as PropTech and investment strategies.
We have to thank YOU, the audience! Thanks for the support and for giving us tremendous feedback. Please continue to suggest anything you have in mind, such as: What kind of topics would you like us to explore? Which experts would you like us to interview? Let us know in the comment section.
For the past few months, we thought deeply about why many traditional real estate agencies are staying quiet about the digital world. Why many of them struggle to transition to digital marketing and miss opportunities many others have found. What is for sure is attracting online prospects is not an easy task and cannot be done on one’s own. That’s when we realized that WE could be the bridge. We call it Denzity Portal: the Shopify for real estate agencies. And unlike other listing platforms – we know video is a powerful medium to attract prospects and direct them to the project listings.
Real estate agencies need a listing portal that can host a wide range of video types, such as virtual viewing and live streaming. Usually, it is quite expensive to build an online listing platform with an extension permitting creative freedom. With Denzity Portal, real estate agencies can now do all that for less than half of the standing cost with our tech solution. With this, finding online prospects and closing sales faster literally becomes a few clicks away.
Additionally, traditional real estate agencies want to find digital talents that can promote listings and create campaigns. With Denzity portal, real estate agencies can access on-demand digital experts – from marketing to video creation – extending the impact of their online presence. With our solution, real estate agencies can capture online prospects faster and easier than ever before while focusing on what matters most: making sales. We are already building listing platforms with a handful of clients. If you are a real estate agency and want to learn more, please reach out! And, if you are a digital marketing agency, you can reach out to us, too!
Now, what to expect from us in 2021? We at Denzity will continue to help investors find more high quality and insightful real estate information and provide digital and creative solutions to help real estate companies succeed in the online world.
To the Denzity team, advisors, partners, shareholders, friends, families, community, and supporters, I wanted to thank all of your continued support, guidance, support, and believe in our mission! We couldn’t accomplish many things this year without you.
As a property agent, you are more or less acting like an entrepreneur – from finding clients to establishing word-of-mouth – you need to continually change, adapt, and reinvent your marketing strategy for it to be effective. If you have been in the industry long enough, you may have experienced a significant shift in recent years. Real estate buyers are changing their way of buying or investing in a property, from newspaper to online market research. The rise of influencer marketing also highlights the importance of having a personal brand. To jump-start your digital marketing game, use the following 3 tips to get the results you’re seeking:
#1 Create your content As a property agent, you are a brand to yourself. To build trust, you need to establish yourself as a real estate expert. Traditionally, this can be done by attending offline events, meeting clients in coffee shops or giving out leaflets and brochures. Yet, technology has changed the way we interact and communicate. Building an online presence is more important than ever. You can do so by producing useful online content and sharing your knowledge through social media. Remember, being consistent is the key. It takes time for people to discover your content initially, but when you produce useful content consistently, people will appreciate it. Once they see you as a professional and trustable property expert, it’s easier for you to start business relationships with them.
#2 Interact with your followers No one likes one-way communication! Your online presence is telling potential customers who you are. To interact with your followers frequently, I’m sure no one wants their real estate agents to be indifferent and not responsive. Being active makes people want to interact with you more, and it’s easier for you to build relationships with them in the long run. Potential or interested clients may drop you a message directly. So make sure you reply to them promptly. You can also ask questions to get a discussion going. This is an excellent way to drive engagement and attract prospects.
#3 Explore different platforms There are multiple social media platforms that you can make use of: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube…you name it. Explore different platforms and understand their differences. For example, YouTube is an excellent channel for video marketing. If you’re good at making videos, go for it! Once again, it takes time and effort to establish an excellent online presence, so be patient. But the beauty of digital marketing is that the potential is endless! You can attract way more prospects online than traditional marketing efforts with the right strategy and tactics.
If it sounds right to you, start building
your online presence today! In the meantime, Denzity can be a good platform for
you to begin with. As a global community of industry experts, Denzity connects
real estate buyers with professional real estate agents. We aim to create a
vibrant, trustable, and professional online community in the real estate scene.
By joining Denzity, you can transform yourself into a digital-savvy real estate
agent and make your real estate business even more successful!
PropTech is making waves in Hong Kong – a city that used to rely heavily on traditional real estate practices. Covid restrictions have forced the real estate industry to innovate and accelerate its digital transformation, although often to mixed results. Here we have PropTech pioneer, Leo Lo, to talk more about this thriving trend and what businesses should look out for.
PropTech (Property Tech): “PropTech” is a recent buzzword in commercial real estate. Similar to “FinTech” (‘finance + technology”), PropTech is a movement in the real estate market toward efficient systems rooted in exploring the digital landscape and tending to new consumption patterns. https://www.common.com/blog/2019/06/what-is-proptech-and-why-companies-are-developing-it/
ConTech (Construction Tech): ConTech is basically the technology used to innovate the way we plan, design, and build structures, as well as the manufacture and installation of their components. ConTech is, in fact, PropTech, due to the overlap that naturally arises between the two. https://medium.com/@OROCON_PRIME/what-is-contech-afaa8943691
Asia PropTech: Established in 2016, Asia PropTech is a community/association that connects PropTech players and industry stakeholders in Asia. It aspires to promote the adoption of PropTech in Asia and facilitate intra-regional trade in PropTech through events, knowledge sharing and management, and strategic partnership with PropTech peer organizations in Europe and the United States. https://www.asiaprop.tech/about-apt
UK PropTech Association: The UK PropTech Association (UKPA) is a not-for-profit membership organisation set up to drive the digital transformation of the property industry by promoting engagement between PropTech and Property businesses, and creating an environment conducive for PropTech innovation. https://ukproptech.com/about/
Global PropTech: Global PropTech is the first and leading global innovation platform for the real estate and construction sector. The platform focuses on developing insights, sharing knowledge between different countries, and matchmaking in order to create a future-proof industry. https://www.globalproptech.online/about-us/
Automated valuation model (AVM): Automated Valuation Model (AVM) is a term for a service that uses mathematical or statistical modeling combined with databases of existing properties and transactions to calculate real estate values. The majority of automated valuation models (AVMs) compare the values of similar properties at the same point in time. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/automated-valuation-model.asp
Smart City: In general, a smart city is a city that uses technology to provide services and solve city problems. A smart city does things like improve transportation and accessibility, improve social services, promote sustainability, and give its citizens a voice. https://blog.bismart.com/en/what-is-a-smart-city
MLS Platform: The MLS is a tool to help listing brokers find cooperative brokers working with buyers to help sell their clients’ homes. Without the collaborative incentive of the existing MLS, brokers would create their own separate systems of cooperation, fragmenting rather than consolidating property information. https://www.nar.realtor/nar-doj-settlement/multiple-listing-service-mls-what-is-it
Virtual Reality: Virtual reality (VR) refers to a computer-generated simulation in which a person can interact within an artificial three-dimensional environment using electronic devices, such as special goggles with a screen or gloves fitted with sensors. In this simulated artificial environment, the user is able to have a realistic-feeling experience. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/v/virtual-reality.asp
Augmented Reality: Augmented reality (AR) is an enhanced version of the real physical world that is achieved through the use of digital visual elements, sound, or other sensory stimuli delivered via technology. It is a growing trend among companies involved in mobile computing and business applications in particular. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/augmented-reality.asp
Country Garden: Established in September 2017, Country Garden Properties (Hong Kong) Limited (Country Garden Hong Kong) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Country Garden Holdings Company Limited (stock code: 2007.HK). Country Garden Hong Kong has two residential projects currently under development, one is Altissimo in Yiu Sha Road, Ma On Shan and the other is in Carpenter Road, Kowloon City. https://www.countrygardenhk.com/en/aboutus
28Houses: 28Hse provides information for the Hong Kong property market, including latest property listings by agents and landlords, property transaction data, market news, used furniture trading etc. https://data.gov.hk/en/application/28hse
Evergrande: The Evergrande Group or the Evergrande Real Estate Group (previously Hengda Group) is China’s second-largest property developer by sales. It is based in southern China’s Guangdong Province, and sells apartments mostly to upper and middle-income dwellers. As of 2018, it is the world’s most valuable real estate company. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergrande_Group
SoftBank: SoftBank got its start in 1981 in Tokyo. Founded as a telecommunications company, SoftBank now has a hand in a number of different areas, including e-commerce, finance, broadband, marketing, and more. The company has a portfolio including SoftBank BB, GungHo Online Entertainment, IDC Frontier, and more. In recent years, it has gone on a spending spree, buying up numerous smaller companies and initiating investments in many others. https://www.investopedia.com/news/what-softbank/
Katerra: Katerra is putting modern technology to work at all levels of building design and construction to help address some of the industry’s most entrenched challenges, utilizing many of the disciplines, processes, and technologies that drove the extraordinary productivity gains of industrialized industries over the last 50 years. We work in a growing number of construction market sectors – including multifamily, senior, affordable housing, educational, industrial, hospitality, medical, and commercial developments. https://www.katerra.com/faq/
Unicorn (for startup): A unicorn is a term used in the venture capital industry to describe a privately held startup company with a value of over $1 billion. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/u/unicorn.asp
BlockChain: Blockchain is a specific type of database.It differs from a typical database in the way it stores information; blockchains store data in blocks that are then chained together. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/blockchain.asp
Shih Wing-Ching: Shih Wing-ching iis a Hong Kong businessman. His family are from Ningbo in Zhejiang but he came to Hong Kong at an early age. In 1978 he established Centaline Property Agency Limited, which is now one of the largest property agencies in both Hong Kong and China. https://bit.ly/2KUpEqZ
▶ Disclaimer:
This disclaimer informs readers/audience that the views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text/video belong solely to the author & participant, and not necessarily to the participant’s employer, organization, committee or other group or individual.
As it can be difficult to catch some minor errors, transcripts may contain a few typos or inaccuracies.
This might be painfully obvious – Please note the following legal conditions:
Denzity owns the copyright in and to all content in and transcripts of Denzity’s video programs and publications (collectively referred to as “Denzity Materials”, with all rights reserved and its right of publicity.
You are welcome to share the below transcript (up to 500 words but not more) in media articles (e.g., The South China Morning Post, Bloomberg, New York Times), on your website, in a non-commercial article or blog post (e.g., Medium and WordPress), and/or on a personal social media account for non-commercial purposes, provided that you include attribution to “Denzity” and link back to the denzity.io/blog URL. For the sake of clarity, media outlets with advertising models are permitted to use excerpts from the transcript per the above.
No one is authorized to copy any portion of the Denzity Materials or use Denzity’s name, image or likeness for any commercial purpose or use, including without limitation inclusion in any books, e-books, book summaries or synopses, or on a commercial website or social media site (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) that offers or promotes your or another’s products or services.
Alright, let’s get back to the transcript of the show. Enjoy!
Darren Wong: So Leo, welcome to the show.
Leo Lo: Hello Darren.
Darren Wong: So it’s interesting, right? Because I know you for four or five years and I always said that you’re someone that I’ve learned about property tech through you and you inspired me a lot. So obviously, like I would say, thanks through this medium first about you inspiring me. And then I want the audience know more about your work, and obviously about Asia Proptech. So would you mind telling the audience a little bit about yourself, your work, and then what you’re working on?
Leo Lo: All right. So yeah, first of all, thank you very much for inviting me to be one of your interviewees for your video. And thanks for setting up this because I think it’s quite meaningful to let the property players and the investors know more about the innovations in the real estate industry. First of all, myself, my name is Leo Lo. Actually, my background, I’m a chartered estate surveyor. So suppose I work in a very traditional real estate, investment, financing, and land matters related industry. So I’m now working on both things, one is more on the traditional side, and running my own business in a real estate consultancy, and also, with the investment, we also do boutique real estate development in other countries. At the same time, we also start proptech some years ago, I established Asian PropTech, probably the first proptech dedicated community found in Asia Pacific region. I started in 2016. At the moment of time, there were not many people talking about proptech. So I felt very excited. And also lonely when I talk about proptech at that time, and later on, I think I knew you from some event, I forgot that. You’re so passionate about the innovations in real estate, I appreciated it. And now, after several years, especially for the first one to two years, we spent a lot of effort in connecting the people in Europe and North America, who are interested in proptech. Somehow Asia is lagging behind, comparatively speaking, maybe two, three years. So, in 2016, in 2017, Asia PropTech got a lot of connections with those European counterparts. They have so many proptech associations, like the UK proptech, German proptech, or Global proptech, you name it. I also myself, was always invited by them to speak about proptech scene in Asia, to share with them about the proptech situation and development in the Asia Pacific region. For these one to two years, I think the whole proptech scene becomes very active in Asia Pacific region, especially the developers here, the estate investors here, they are all keen on looking forward to some innovations that can be brought to their projects, how to add values to their projects, etc. So, so that’s Asia PropTech. And we are now providing few things to the real estate industry about innovations, or we provide consultancy services on proptech. We still keep on connecting people around the world. We work closely with other proptech associations publicly, like PropTech Institute in Hong Kong as founded by you. We are working very close together. That’s great. And we also try to set up some what we call “cocreation lab” in the region. But sadly because the COVID-19, progress is sluggish. We cannot make travels. So I think we still need to work on more, hopefully maybe next year, to set up some cocreation labs with the governments, with the industry in some countries in Asia, like Malaysia, Singapore, greater Bay Area etc. So, yeah, that’s Asia PropTech and myself. We also have our own proptech solution, because I am a chartered surveyor. So my interest is more on real estate analysis the valuation side. So we developing what we call AVM, the automated valuation model, try to assist the real estate investors and financers about the true valuation of real estate.
Darren Wong:That’s pretty good. It’s interesting, because you touched so many different points of the real estate spectrum, like from valuation, from the investment side, consultancy, and obviously now proptech is something that I want to talk to you about. And then, it’s always excited about property tech, because I think that is something has a really, really big potential for the industry. And then you have been in a forefront just kickstarted everything. So I want to say thanks for this. So pretty quickly for the audience, I want take a step back to tell the audience about property tech, would you mind give a very brief description of what it is and what it isn’t?
Leo Lo: Sure. Proptech, I think the term becomes popular only within these 10 years, even less than seven years. I think, originally, the US they call it real estate tech, the Europe and the UK to use property as real estate, so they call proptech/property tech. To me, I think somehow proptech is just a buzzword. So just like fin tech, just like health tech, inshore tech, I think any technologies, any innovations that can be applied in real estate and construction industry can be regarded as proptech. So some people would suggest that proptech is something overlapping with smart cities, for example, or overlapping with a fintech, for example. I think the answer is yes. Somehow is yes, because there are no particular technologies, you can say, oh, it’s only proptech, it’s not being fintech. So It depends on which technologies you’re using, and somehow it’s not only about the hard technologies, it’s also about innovation. For example, business model innovation. Say, we got a coworking or coliving are also the verticals under the banner of proptech. Coworking doesn’t use any rocket-science technology, but somehow they have a very innovative business model. They actually changed or disrupt a bit about the relationship between landlords and tenants. And especially this year, we encountered a pandemic situation, many people working from home. So, co-working is actually an idea, try to shuffle the relationship, the interest between landlords and tenants. So, it is also regarded as proptech. Or give you a more examples like we talk about proptech from proptech 1.0, 2.0, 3.0. So 1.0 is more related to those using the internet economy in the real estate industry, like many people start their proptech business, first of all, they focus on the multiple MLS platforms. So in Hong Kong, for example, 28house.com, even for Centaline, Midland, they develop their own platforms. I think these are, of course, a proptech. So they try to minimise the cost of information, or some of them even they want to get rid of agents. So this is proptech. And 2.0 is something like they use drones, they use VR, they use AR to assist the real estate or the construction process. Say, even BIM, Building Information modelling. I can say that BIM is even invented earlier than the term of proptech. So this is fantastic to assist the constructor, the project, the real estate manager. And 3.0 is something like they use more data analytics, AI or blockchain, try to facilitate the real estate transactions. So it is the buzzword. And there’s no concrete definition of proptech. So any technologies, any business model innovations that can facilitate real estate and construction industry can be regarded as proptech.
Darren Wong: I see. I think it’s really interesting, because when you talk about it, you can see, like a history of how proptech have evolved. So I’m just kind of curious too, because we both know that proptech adoption or at least the awareness of proptech was slower before and this year is somehow has accelerated really fast. What do you think is the reason behind that?
Leo Lo: Hong Kong as an example, I think, especially in the first one to two years, when I established Asia Proptech, when I talk to the developers, the local developers, I think, the FAQ, the frequently asked questions, on proptechs, they would like to know, okay, if I use proptech, how much I can save the cost, and how much the profit can be boosted? So this is very direct, I think that they’re asking something correct. Because these two factors are the main elements in real estate development, for example. So the concern much about what actually proptech can help, but in some years before or for the previous 10 years, Hong Kong, for example, the real estate market is performing quite good. To be honest, it’s not that difficult for those established real estate developers to earn money, even without using tech, even without using innovations. So somehow proptech is a was just like, a tool for them to window dressing instead of, you know, they really want to use proptech to solve the problems. But not until this year, I think for the whole world, we encountered the pandemic situation, as mentioned, for the office, landlords, they are facing higher and higher vacancy rates, even in central, even in the CBD in many major cities in the world. For the retail malls for example, street shops, the high street shops, the vacancy rates are getting higher. So somehow they turn their head to proptech, again, they really want to see how proptech can help. And this time, they are serious, because proptech can really differentiate different levels. Say in China, for example, in the mainland China, I think, some years ago, we even discussed or talk about if Country Garden, for example, will collapse in one day, even evergrande, in recent two to three weeks there are bad news about evergrande. I want to say is in China or in other countries, the real estate market is, maybe probably, comparatively competitive. So the developers, even the big developers, are keen on make themselves more innovative. Say Country Garden, I mentioned, they started to use construction tech, they started to put money into R&D of robotics in construction. I know many real estate developers in the mainland China, they have in-house incubators. They put a lot of effort to encourage their employees to suggest some innovative solutions to their industry. I think they’re really putting some true effort in pushing the innovation. that’s different. So to answer your question, I think in the past, maybe the real estate companies were in the comfort zone, but now they need to look into what innovation or proptech can really help.
Darren Wong: I see. So what is the current state of the proptech industry in the world at the moment and which segments have become more popular?
Leo Lo: As I mentioned, in proptech sector, we already used 3.0 to describe the current situation. And I don’t think we made progress to 4.0 proptech We haven’t reached that stage yet. But now I think, comparatively speaking, I think construction related tech would be more favourable. Because somehow, some people may suggest that okay, well, real estate tech is a platform is just try to lower the communication cost. Somehow real estate tech is not that on the ground, but construction related tech is more on the ground. That means, say, if you use 3d printing for constructing a house, if you use some innovative building materials like engineering bamboo, for example, I know some companies that are doing that, they are very concrete, I mean, they are on the ground that can save the cost, save the time, even BIM as I mentioned, these solutions are more favourable. And you can see even SoftBank, they invest in a company called Katerra. I think, if I’m correct, they’re based in Silicon Valley, they are more on the contech, a construction tech sector. After the investment made by SoftBank, they became a unicorn. So that is a fair point, an example. I think, even for the Hong Kong billionaires, for example, as I know, say, the ventures from Mr. Li Ka-shing. They also invest in quite some building management or energy management related companies in June. So to answer your question, I think construction tech, or building tech, or energy management related tech, are competitively attractive or more favourable back to real estate, I think data analytics would be something under the spotlight as well. Somehow we probably overestimate blockchain in some years ago. But I always suggest that of course, we cannot underestimate the blockchain applications in real estate industry in the coming 5 to 10 years. But somehow, it still takes time, say because blockchain, we still need to work with the governments, we need work with the regulators. So we need to be patient to wait for blockchain to change the industry. So to me, real estate, data analytics, AI assistant or powered tech that can help to facilitate real estate transaction that would be great.
Darren Wong: I see. So a lot of people, obviously, we all acknowledge. We’re part of the industry, we felt that proptech that has been increasing faster. But people still think that the proptech Hong Kong scene is a bit slower. What’s the reasoning behind it? And what are the challenge for that reason, in your opinion?
Leo Lo: I think I mentioned about a bit about this. Because of the real estate developers, most of them actually are under the comfort zone. So they are not keen on changing themselves to compare with other countries. That is one of the reasons. I think secondly, it’s about the government support. Because Hong Kong government, they try to assist, on how FinTech or smart cities a lot. They create some task force, or they at least they name FinTech or smart cities as the major your stream that they need to put effort or resources in. But proptech seems to me it’s still, not many people talk about. I know Cyberport may we discuss the idea recently, we face it, the, the streams, they need to focus on maybe proptech would be under the spotlight. So I think that’s important because somehow in Asia, with the government support, no matter is money or network or market, that will be helpful. So I look forward to one day Hong Kong government would name proptech as one of the very cool things to put much resources in. I think, somehow, the number of proptech companies is not that big. I mean, the number is not that big in Hong Kong. It’s also one of the reasons that makes Hong Kong a bit slow, because first of all Hong Kong, I mean, the startup ecosystem is not that big compared with Singapore, Malaysia, Korea. I always say that even for the tech people in Hong Kong, if they want to make a startup, they want to start a tech or business model innovation company, they would rather choose maybe other industries, not real estate, not construction, they start their company in FinTech, in health tech, in education tech. Somehow, because real estate in Hong Kong is such a big market with big companies already, so for those proptech people, they may be reluctant to have their company started in real estate and construction. Because the investors will ask them, say, if Okay, Mr. Li Ka-shing do something similar. How your company can survive, say if Mr. Shih Wing-Ching do something similar, how can your company survive? So it’s quite discouraging, somehow. And for the real estate, or construction industry, people in Hong Kong, because I think if you are working in this industry before I’m working in this industry, somehow I think we also in the comfort zone, and most of them are, actually, employees, and they may not be that entrepreneurial. At that sense, so you cannot find many people coming from real estate and construction industry jumping out to start their company. So that’s also one of the reasons. So that makes proptech not active at this moment. But I still believe that the situation would get better in the coming years.
Darren Wong: Let’s hope so. And if you can deliver a message to all the real estate industry leaders orproptech leaders, what would that be?
Leo Lo: I think I would suggest, I would like to say embrace is the key, say, embracing the innovations and embracing any new ideas, like what I’m developing now on AVM, as I mentioned, automated valuation model, somehow it’s challenging the traditional surveyors jobs. And also, we also need to work with the regulators, work with the professional institute. I think the institutes, the regulators are the players in the industry should at least adopt embracing mentality. Otherwise, I think the society cannot be improved, and that’s something I want to suggest.
Darren Wong: That’s pretty good. It is a really good message. Yeah, I get it. But it’s something that it’s coming. But you’ve got to keep going and keep trying the best to build the best product out there.
Leo Lo: The trend, like I mentioned about blockchain, although we a bit overestimate the impact in this one to two years, but it will definitely change or improve the industry in the coming five to 10 years. So we need to embrace any innovation.
Darren Wong: I see. So one last thing, because obviously, we can go hours and hours on it. And then I think in the future, if I ever asked you to come to the show, it’ll be really cool that we can talk about very specific segments of what’s going on. Because proptech is a very broad. And it’ll be just hardware to software. Yeah, there’s a lot of things there. But we can go drill down more and more in details. So in the Interim, if the audience want to learn more about property tech, or want to ask for your service, how would they contact you? How you suggest them to contact you and talk to you further?
Leo Lo: All right. So you’re welcome to visit my web page, www.asiaprop.tech. And you can find the contact details of myself. And, of course, you can search my name, Leo Lo, on LinkedIn, you will definitely find myself. Feel free to text me and leave me a message. I’ll get back to you.
Darren Wong: Yeah, I’ve had everything in the show notes. And I want to say thanks for your time to being here. And I really think that we’re just in the beginning of the whole industry, and I can’t wait for five years from now would be like, wow, just so many things happening. And then we are obviously part of the industry too, we start the whole thing.Yeah, for sure. Let’s see how it goes. And thanks for your time. I really appreciate your time again and then next time come again.
Leo Lo: Thank you so much.
Darren Wong: Thank you. Have a good one. Bye bye
Darren Wong: 那麼,Leo,歡迎來到本集節目。
Leo Lo :你好,Darren。
Darren Wong: 其實這很有趣,對吧?因為我認識你四、五年了,而我一直說我是通過你瞭解房地產科技的,你啟發了我很多。所以很明顯,就像我要說的,首先感謝你通過這個媒介激勵我。然後我想讓觀眾更多地瞭解你的工作,當然還有Asia Proptech。那麼你介意告訴觀眾一些關於你自己,你的工作,以及你目前在做什麼?
Leo Lo:好的。所以,首先,非常感謝您邀請我作為您的節目嘉賓。然後謝謝你設立這個節目,因為我認為讓房地產和投資者更進一步瞭解房地產業創新十分有意義。首先,我自己,我的名字叫Leo Lo。事實上,我的背景,我是一名特許地產量測師。假設我在一個非常傳統的房地產投資行業工作,與金融、土地相關產業。所以我現在在做兩件事,一件是從傳統的角度來看,我在一家房地產諮詢公司經營自己的業務,而且,通過投資,我們我們在其他國家的房地產開發也發展精品房地產。同時,我們也在好幾年前開始了房地產科技發展,我建立了Asia PropTech,可能是亞太地區第一個專業房地產科技的平台。我是在2016年開始的。當時,很少有人談論房地產科技,所以當時我感覺非常興奮。但當我談論房地產科技的時候也很孤獨,後來,我想我是從一些活動裡認識你的我不太清楚了。我很感激你對房地產的創新如此熱情。以及現在,經過幾年之後,特別是開始的一到兩年,我們花了很多精力來連接歐洲和北美對房地產科技感興趣的人。不知怎麼的,相對之下,亞洲落後了可能是兩三年。因此,在2016年,2017年,Asia PropTech與歐洲同行的有很多聯系。他們有很多房地產科技協會,比如英國房地產科技,德國房地產科技公司,或者環球房地產科技,你說得出的都有。以及我自己也總是被邀請向大家介紹亞洲房地產科技的環境,分享亞太地區房地產科技的現狀和發展。在這一到兩年的時間裏,我認為整個亞太地區的房地產科技領域都變得非常活躍,尤其是這裡的開發商,這裡的房地產投資者,他們都很熱衷、期待能為他們的項目帶來一些創新,如何為他們的項目新增價值,等等,所以這就是Asia PropTech。我們現在為房地產行業提供的幾項創新,或者我們提供房地產科技方面的諮詢服務。我們仍然在不斷地聯系世界各地的人。我們與其他房地產技術協會有密切的公開合作,例如由您創辦的香港房地產科技協會。我們在工作上有密切的來往,這是一件很好的事。我們還試圖建立一些我們稱之為“合作實驗室”在這地區。但不幸的是,由於COVID-19,這個項目進展緩慢。我們不能來往各個地區。所以我認為我們還需要做更多的工作,希望明年,建立一些合作實驗室,在亞洲的一些國家,如馬來西亞、新加坡、大灣區等,與政府和行業合作。所以,是的,這就是Asia PropTech和我自己。我們也有自己的科技解決方案,因為我是特許量測師。所以我的興趣更多的是房地產分析和估價方面。所以我們開發了我們稱之為AVM的自動估價模型,試圖協助房地產投資者和財務人員瞭解房地產的真實價值。
Darren Wong: 這十分好。這很有趣,因為你觸及了房地產領域的許多不同點,比如從估值、投資、諮詢等方面,顯然現在我想和你談談房地產科技。然後,房地產科技總是令人十分興奮,因為我認為這對這個行業有著非常巨大的潜力。然後你一直站在最前線,推動一切開始發展。所以我想對你說謝謝。所以為了觀眾們,我想很快地先基本告訴觀眾關於房地產科技,你能簡單描述一下它是什麼,以及它並不是什麼嗎?
Leo Lo :當然。一個房地產科技,我認為這一詞彙只在這10年內開始流行,甚至不到7年。我想,最初,美國稱之為房地產科技,歐洲和英國將資產稱為房地產,因此他們稱之為“資產科技”,我只是覺得科技是一種科技。就像金融科技,健康科技,近海科技,我認為任何科技,任何可以應用於房地產和建築的創新工業都可以看作是房地產科技,所以有人會說房地產科技是與例如智慧都市,或金融科技等產業重疊。我想答案是肯定的。不知何故是的,因為沒有特殊的科技,你可以說,哦,這只是房地產科技,不是用於金融科技公司。所以這取決於你使用的是哪種科技,而且不知何故,這不僅是關於硬科技,而且也關於創新。比如商業模式創新。比如說,我們有一個共事或合作也是以房地產科技為主的垂直行業。合作工作不使用任任何複雜的技術,但不知何故他們的商業模式非常創新。他們實際上改變了或者擾亂了房東和房客之間的關係。尤其是今年,我們遇到了病毒全球大流行的情况,很多人在家工作。所以,合作工作實際上是一種想法,嘗試重新建立關係,和房東和房客之間的利益。所以,它也被認為是房地產科技。或者給你一個更多的例子,比如我們談起房地產科技會說從房地產科技1.0,2.0,到3.0。所以1.0與房地產行業使用互聯網經濟的人更為相關,比如許多人開始了他們的房地產科技業務,首先,他們專注於多個MLS平臺。所以在香港,為了示例,28house.com網站即使是在Midland的Centaline,他們也開發自己的平臺。我當然,認為這些是一種房地產科技,所以他們儘量降低資訊成本,或其中一些成本他們甚至不使用中介。所以這是房地產科技2.0就像他們使用無人機,他們使用虛擬實境,他們使用AR來協助房地產或施工過程。即使是BIM,建築資訊建模。我可以說BIM這個詞甚至比房地產科技還更早出現。所以這對於幫助施工方、項目和房地產經理來說是非常棒的。和3.0就像他們使用更多的資料分析、人工智慧或區塊鏈,努力促進房地產交易。所以這就是我們流行使用的詞。而且其實房地產科技沒有具體的定義。因此,任何能夠促進房地產和建築業的科技、商業模式創新都可以被視為房地產科技。
Darren Wong: 我明白了。我認為這真的很有趣,因為當你談論它的時候,你可以看到,像房地產科技如何演變的歷史。所以我只是也有點好奇,因為我們都知道,房地產科技的採用或者至少對房地產科技的認識以前比較慢,而今年不知何故速度非常快。你認為這背後的原因是什麼?
Leo Lo:以香港為例,我認為,尤其是在我剛成立Asia Proptech的一到兩年裏,當我與開發商、本地發展商交談時,我想,常見問題解答,關於房地產科技的最常見問題,他們想知道,好吧,如果我使用房地產科技,我可以節省多少錢成本,利潤能提高多少?所以這很直接,我認為他們在問正確的問題。因為這兩個因素是房地產開發的主要因素。所以這是對於房地產科技的實際幫助的關注,但在過去的幾年裏或之前,以香港為例,10年來,房地產市場表現相當不錯。說實話,對於那些老牌房地產開發商來說,即使不使用科技,甚至不使用創新,賺錢也不會有太大的困難。所以房地產科技就像是他們用來裝飾的工具,而不是,你知道的,他們真想用房地產科技來解决問題。但直到今年,我想對於全世界來說,我們遇到了病毒全球大流行的問題,就如剛才所說的,對於辦公室、房東來說,他們面臨著越來越高的空缺,在世界上許多主要城市,即使是在市中心,甚至在中央商務區。比如零售商場,街頭商店,商業街商店,空置率越來越高。所以他們又轉過頭來支持科技,他們真的很想看看房地產科技能幫上什麼忙。這一次,他們是認真的,因為房地產科技可以真正區分不同的層次。比如說在中國,在中國大陸,我想,幾年前,我們甚至討論或談論碧桂園是否會在一天內倒閉,甚至恒大,,最近兩三星期恒大也有壞消息。我想說的是在中國還是在其他國家,房地產市場是,也許,相對來說競爭激烈。所以開發商,甚至是大開發商,都熱衷於讓自己更加創新。比如碧桂園,我提到過,他們開始使用建築技術,開始投入資金參與建築機器人的研發。我認識很多中國大陸的房地產開發商,他們都有內部的培養。他們花了很多精力鼓勵員工為他們的工業提供創新建議。我認為他們真的在推動創新方面付出了一些真正的努力。所以那就不同了。所以回答你的問題,我想在過去,也許房地產公司處於舒適圈,但現在他們需要研究創新或支持科技能,才能真正起到什麼作用。
Darren Wong: 我明白了。那麼房地產科技的現狀如何呢現時世界上的產業,哪些細分市場更受歡迎?
Leo Lo: 正如我提到的,在房地產科技領域,我們已經使用3.0來描述當前的情况。我不認為我們在科技進展方面到達了4.0。我們還沒有達到那個階段。但現在我認為,相對而言,我認為與施工相關的科技將更為有利。因為不知何故,有些人可能會建議,好吧,房地產科技是一個平臺,所以儘量降低通信成本吧。不知何故,房地產科技並不是那麼實際,但與建築相關的科技更多的是在實際施工上。也就是說,如果你用3D列印來建造房子使用一些創新的建築材料,例如工程竹,我知道一些公司正在這樣做,他們是非常有效具體的,我的意思是,他們能够節省成本、節省時間,即使是我提到的BIM,這些解決方案更為有利。你甚至可以看到Softbank,他們投資一家叫做Katerra的公司。我想,如果我是對的,他們的總部在矽谷他們更著重關於Contech,一個建築技術部門。在Softbank投資之後,他們變成了獨一無二的公司。所以這是公平的一個例子。我想,即使對香港的億萬富翁來說,我知道,比如說李嘉誠先生的投資。6月份,他們還投資了相當多的建築管理或能源管理相關公司。所以為了回答您的問題,我認為建築技術或建築技術或能源管理相關科技是對於房地產行業來說,更具有競爭力的吸引力或更有利的回報,我認為資料分析可能也會受到一些關注。也許在以往的某些年裏我們高估了區塊鏈但我始終認為,當然,我們不能低估區塊鏈在未來5-10年在房地產行業的應用。但不知何故,這仍然需要時間,比如說,因為區塊鏈,我們仍然需要與政府合作,我們需要與監管機构合作。所以我們需要耐心等待區塊鏈改變行業。所以對我來說,房地產,資料分析,人工智慧助理或動力科技可以幫助促進房地產交易的話就太好了。
Darren Wong: 我明白了。所以很多人,顯然,我們都承認。我們是這個行業的一部分,我們覺得這個行業增長得很快。但人們仍然認為房地產科技香港的發展有點慢。背後的原因是什麼?在你看來,這個原因的挑戰是什麼?
Leo Lo:我想我提到過關於這個。因為房地產開發商,他們中的大多數實際上都是在舒適區。因此,他們並不熱衷於改變自己來與其他國家進行比較。這是原因之一。我想第二,是關於政府的支持。因為香港政府,他們試圖協助金融科技或者智慧都市。他們成立了一些特別工作組,或者至少他們命名金融科技或智慧都市作為他們需要投入精力或資源的主流。但我覺得房地產科技依然很少有人談論。我知道在數碼港我們可以討論一下這個想法,我們面對它,對於主流媒體,他們需要關注的是,也許房地產科技會成為焦點。所以我覺得這很重要因為在亞洲,在政府的支持下,無論是資金、網絡還是市場,都會有幫助。所以我期待有一天香港政府會將房地產科技視為可以投入大量資源的有潛力的東西之一。我想,不知怎麼的,房地產科技公司的數量並不多。我的意思是,在香港這個數位不是那麼大。這也是讓香港有點慢,因為首先香港,我的意思是,與新加坡、馬來西亞和韓國相比,創業生態系統並沒有那麼大。我總是說,即使對香港的科技人來說,如果他們想創業,他們想要創立一家科技或商業模式創新型的公司,他們寧願選擇其他行業,而不是房地產建築業,他們在金融科技、健康科技、教育科技等領域創立了自己的公司。不知怎麼的,因為香港的房地產是一個很大的市場,已經有了大公司,所以對於那些純粹的房地產科技人員,他們可能不願意讓自己的公司在房地產和建築業起步。因為投資者會問他們,如果可以的話,李嘉誠先生也會做類似的事情。你的公司是如何生存的,比如說如果施永青先生也做了類似的事情,你的公司怎麼能生存下來?所以這讓人很沮喪。對於房地產或建築業,香港人,因為我認為,如果你在這個行業工作,在我進入這個行業之前,我想我們也在舒適區,實際上,他們中的大多數人都是雇員,而且他們可能並沒有太多的企業家精神。從這個意義上說,你找不到很多來自房地產和建築業的人離職去創辦他們的公司。所以這也是原因之一。所以這使得房地產科技現在不活躍。但我仍然相信未來幾年形勢會好轉。
Darren Wong: 希望如此。如果你能向所有房地產行業領袖或房地產科技領袖傳達資訊,那會是什麼?
Leo Lo:我想我會建議,我我想說把握是關鍵,比如,把握創新,把握任何新想法,就像我現在在AVM上開發的一樣,正如我提到的,自動評估模型,不知怎麼的,它對傳統的測量員工作帶來挑戰。此外,我們還需要與監管機构合作,與專業機构合作。我認為研究所、監管者是行業的參與者,至少應該採取把握時機的心態。否則,我認為社會無法改善,這是我想建議的。
Darren Wong: 很好。這是一個非常好的訊息。是的,我明白了。機會即將到來。但你必須繼續努力,盡最大努力打造出最好的產品。
Leo Lo:行業的趨勢,就像我提到了的區塊鏈,雖然我們有點高估了它這兩年的影響力,但在未來五到十年內,它肯定會改變或改善這個行業。所以我們需要把握任何創新。
Darren Wong: 我明白了。最後一件事,因為很明顯,我們可以花上好幾個小時。然後我想在將來,如果我再邀請你來到這個節目,我們可以談談現今具體發生的事情。因為房地產科技是一個非常廣泛的行業。然後從硬體到軟件。是的,那裡有很多東西。但我們可以深入瞭解更多細節。所以在這段期間,如果觀眾想瞭解更多關於房地產科技,或者想請求您的服務,他們會如何聯系您?你如何建議他們聯系你並與你進一步交談?
Leo Lo:好的。歡迎你訪問我的網頁,www.asiaprop.tech。你可以找到我的聯繫方式。而且,當然,你可以在LinkedIn上蒐索我的名字,Leo Lo,你一定會找到我的。隨時給我發短信,給我留言。我會給你回電的。
Darren Wong: 是的,我已經把所有的東西都記在節目簡介上了。我想感謝你能抽出時間來這裡。我真的認為我們還處於整個行業的起步階段,我等不及從現在開始的五年裏,會有很多改變和發展。然後我們顯然也是這個行業的一部分,我們開始了整個過程。是的,當然。讓我們看看進展如何。謝謝你的時間。我真的很感謝你的再次光臨。
“Technology cannot replace core work in real estate” is a dogma that has circulated the industry for far too long. The reality is this: many real estate experts are quickly shifting their focus to online platforms – a better & faster way to capture leads like never before
Little do they know, however, that attracting online prospects is no simple task
Traditionally real estate professionals have relied heavily on finding prospects offline – such as attending networking events to setting up exhibitions. Unfortunately, the online world is a whole different game: SEO optimization, branding, copywriting… Build an effective online presence costs a lot of energy & effort!
3 things to keep in mind when building an online marketing engine
1️⃣ Showcase useful insights first before directing prospects to sales. Need inspiration? Check ➡️ YouTube.com/Denzity
2️⃣ Always track the performance & learn how to improve
3️⃣ Building an online engine takes time, effort, & investment in campaign creation & tech solutions. Be patient and it will pay off
We are pre-launching Denzity Campaign Portal to help real estate agencies, professionals & educators that seek to bolster their online presence & our technical expertise
Count-down the next 2 weeks for more details & stay tuned.
The Future of Real Estate Is Digital with Justin Lau
This episode, we explore more on the tech side of the property market, which is widely known as PropTech across the industry. Just like any other sector, the real estate industry is also digitizing every day, however, the adoption has been rather slow in the Asian market. Today our guest Justin Lau will talk about why he created Property Raptor to help speed things along.
CRM system: CRM or customer relation management system is a tool, usually used by businesses to acquire and handle customers.
https://www.creatio.com/page/what-is-crm
PropTech: PropTech is an acronym for the words Property Technology, which has been created due to the vast usage of technology in the property or real estate industry.
Marketing automation: Marketing automation is basically the usage of softwares to simplify the work for marketers by saving their time and effort, especially when it comes to repetitive tasks.
SaaS (Software as a service): SaaS is a way in which data the are stored in cloud can be accessed from any device via internet.
https://www.salesforce.com/in/saas/
Blockchain technology: A blockchain is basically a chain of blocks containing information online. The structure of a blockchain technology is designed as such, so that the data stored within cannot be tampered with.
This disclaimer informs readers/audience that the views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text/video belong solely to the author & participant, and not necessarily to the participant’s employer, organization, committee or other group or individual.
As it can be difficult to catch some minor errors, transcripts may contain a few typos or inaccuracies.
This might be painfully obvious – Please note the following legal conditions:
Denzity owns the copyright in and to all content in and transcripts of Denzity’s video programs and publications (collectively referred to as “Denzity Materials”, with all rights reserved and its right of publicity.
You are welcome to share the below transcript (up to 500 words but not more) in media articles (e.g., The South China Morning Post, Bloomberg, New York Times), on your website, in a non-commercial article or blog post (e.g., Medium and WordPress), and/or on a personal social media account for non-commercial purposes, provided that you include attribution to “Denzity” and link back to the denzity.io/blog URL. For the sake of clarity, media outlets with advertising models are permitted to use excerpts from the transcript per the above.
No one is authorized to copy any portion of the Denzity Materials or use Denzity’s name, image or likeness for any commercial purpose or use, including without limitation inclusion in any books, e-books, book summaries or synopses, or on a commercial website or social media site (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) that offers or promotes your or another’s products or services.
Alright, let’s get back to the transcript of the show. Enjoy!
▶ Transcript [English & Chinese]
Darren Wong: So Justin, welcome to the show.
Justin Lau: Thanks Darren for having us.
Darren Wong: Yeah, so it’s really exciting, because I heard a lot about you guys. And what you guys are doing is amazing, empowering the proptech scene in Hong Kong. The product sounds really, really cool. So obviously, it’s really good to have this opportunity with you. So before started, would you mind telling the audience a little bit about yourself, and then Property Raptor?
Justin Lau: [00:00:24] Sure, I started with Property Raptor in about two and a half years ago, in my previous history, I was actually within the finance and banking space. So I was a banker for more than a decade, within the capital markets, talking to clients about selling shares, and advise them on what to buy and sell, and then subsequently moved into the private equity space, and did a lot of work in the technology area, or private equity. You know, it was actually two and a half years ago, where the idea of Property Raptor came about. We’re doing a lot of investing in that area. And we’ve heard from a lot of different agencies and different market participants that the real estate software space is really underserved, particularly in Asia. And so, in particular, one of my good friends runs an agency in Greater China. And he said, the ultimate reason why he couldn’t expand further was that the software didn’t serve their needs in order to manage a bigger business. So that’s how the idea Property Raptor came about.
Darren Wong: I see. That’s really fascinating, because a lot of people are thinking about, how do you have a better process for a real estate agent to approach? So obviously, would you elaborate more about the origin of Property Raptor, and also a CRM system and why it’s so important to have real estate focused on a CRM system?
Justin Lau: [00:01:43] Everybody knows the Hong Kong is a is a major global city. And the main sector is that drives, are finances and property and retail and so on. But what really lags behind in the city, and in particular, the property space, not just in Hong Kong, but everywhere in the property space is digital transformation. But the digitalization of the sector has been very, very slow. In fact, it’s probably the second least digital sector in the world after agriculture, which is unbelievable, given how big the sector is globally and everywhere. So, as we discovered that more and more agencies were telling us, we don’t have the software that serves our needs, and we have multiple systems and did not connect properly, we decided that building a system of software that can cater at the enterprise level for agencies and agents and developers is a really great idea for Asia in particular. We’ve seen probably a massive increase in proptech investment globally. So in 2012, investment in proptech was only $200 million, hardly anything, right? This is 2012, when the world was digitising at a rapid rate, and they spent $20 million on PropTech until last year was about $8 billion. So that shows you the growth of what’s in the market today. The problem being that 95% of all of that investment is not in Asia, it’s in the US and in the North America. So the opportunities to digitise Asia was huge for us. So we knew that with all of the developments on PropTech, from the developed countries and Western economies, they hadn’t really thought about the intricacies and uniqueness of Asia when the develop into product, which is why when we talk to our agencies and clients, they tell us that, there are software out there in the market, it just doesn’t really fit our needs, it just doesn’t really work. So we decided what we need to do is: two and a half years ago, go on to the market, build a product best in class, we find the best things out there, build a best in class and and uniquely position that for Asia, because we know that this is a really, really highly complex market, the kind of assets that we build are different. We build lots of towers, communities of towers in big major, major areas, and there’s a huge amount of transactions and a lot of data everywhere. So we knew that we had to cater for that. And once we’ve done that, I think you know, to translate that and across all around the world, globally, we will be the easiest task.
Darren Wong: I see. Can explain the current state of how real estate professionals engage with clients, and how does Property Raptor startup can improve the whole process of it a bit?
Justin Lau: Sorry, can you repeat that again, sorry Darren. I just missed out.
Darren Wong: Yeah. Can you explain the current state of how real estate professionals engage with their clients and how your startup can improve the whole process?
[00:04:33] Justin Lau: [00:04:33] Yeah. So actually the way that they engage with clients is actually very, very traditional. Yes, they pick up the phone, they send some emails, they send some SMS, and it’s all within their own Gmail accounts, and phones and so on. And even in some instances, developers and agencies are working on Excel spreadsheets, or sharing documents. In an advanced version, they would be sharing documents in Google Docs. And in some cases, developers are faxing inventory to the agency using fax. I didn’t know faxes still exist in today’s world, but that’s exactly what’s happening. Agents are typically handling multiple projects at the same time. So if you’re thinking about new developers or new developments agents are handling multiple developments at the same time, with thousands of units, particularly in Asia, for them to understand the client lists who needs what, and who wants what and, with thousands of units available at any one time for them, it’s almost impossible for them to handle those kinds of lists. The statistics is that an agent will probably spend three or four hours a day just trying to match up clients with inventory, which is incredible, right? These are things that they do every single day. And what they really need is a system to help them automate a way their processes, the process of automation of any repetitive tasks is key to what they need. So they can spend more time with the clients and selling real estate, and nothing really help them to do that. So what we did at Property Raptor was to develop this system, and it was developed by IMS, it’s one of the largest digital agencies in Asia with the most software developers as an independent firm, is to build a system that really helps the agencies match up the right clients with the right assets, but also the other way around, match up the right assets with the right clients. So you would think they are one in the same but they’re not, so as new information comes in, an agent wouldn’t then go and try to find clients that fit them, what we’ve tried to do is to use kind of advanced AI and data query, and use machine learning within our property Raptor system to help match clients with assets and then with assets with the clients. This is not purely the screening functions that you see in all the other portals. Darren can be always finding a three bedrooms, two bathroom with a balcony, in a specific area of town. But what we do is we use fuzzy logic, AI, in order to find the most appropriate assets for those clients. What you’ll find actually is that around 50% of clients, what they end up buying, doesn’t fit the spec of what they told the agent in the first place. So if what they buy isn’t what they told the agents in the first place, how the agent supposed to find the right kind of asset for them? So with our system, agencies will be able to use the digital assets, like the websites and portals and apps, in order to track the behaviour of those clients. And then using that, [00:07:30] to match up the correct assets and apartments for the buyer.
Darren Wong: It’s very interesting, because we talked about the whole journey, I can even envision myself and before I talk to different people about property tech, is pick a hard time to understand, and a lot of agents that I know, and brokers have the same problem. So it’s a lot of things to do, a lot of mini manage, a lot of things going on is really hard to understand CRM systems sometimes, because at the moment, a lot of your answers are very complicated for them, it’s a lot of things to juggle. So it’s interesting when you think about that. So what’s the challenge when introducing to real estate companies and professional when it comes to talking about Property Raptor and their product you guys are selling?
[00:08:14] Justin Lau: I think the challenges are different in different locations. So in Asia, for example, I think this is where this is where we are based to, and this is our backyard. And we decided to do this because we saw a massive gap in Asia. And so in Asia, the issue is that they’re not really even using software. What do we do in Asia, and Hong Kong and Singapore, or Vietnam and Indonesia is, agencies tend to throw headcount at a problem, right? They have more developments to sell. They just hire more people because they are cheap. Hire more people, and stand outside IFC, or some big building or landmark and hand out flyers, and hope they can catch on clients in that way. So one of our key challenges is essentially to educate the client and to demonstrate how our product can address most of the problems and the pain points. So at the moment, we’re within a round of fundraising, so that we can expand ourselves on broader teams, so to further support our clients demand and, and truly show the capabilities of our platform and really empower them to generate more sales quickly. So our model is really to help them close deals faster. And as you’ve seen, I think, in this Coronavirus environment, in this pandemic, all industries are digitising very, very quickly, because they’re seeing their revenues crunched up, businesses are being squeezed, and they try to find a way in order to either maintain market share, or just to not lose so much money. And what we try to do in Property Raptor is to increase efficiency and effectiveness of the sales team that are running real estate agencies. And so that’s one of the challenges is really just to educate and demonstrate our product in Asia. I think most agencies now if they are of a reasonable size, understand that they need more technology, I think it’s an inescapable fact. Now, in other regions, I think our path to generating adoption may be a little easier, because I don’t need to educate. In Europe and in the US, they are already paying for CRM systems, and software systems, they’re paying for a CRM system, and lead generation system, marketing automation, inventory management, they’re paying for all of these things already. So in those instances, our challenge really is to demonstrate the product, to demonstrate how much more productive they can be, how having a fully integrated all in one system really meets their needs, as opposed to them trying to hack together a solution and trying to kind of overlay linking up multiple systems, where they have the same data sets in multiple different systems, and it just really doesn’t work for them. Because how do they keep data sanitised? They can’t even do that. So it’s different challenges we have in different places. But I think what’s really clearly shown is that the opportunity is big no matter where the clients are.
Darren Wong: I see, that was really good. Because even I feel the same way is that I think Asia for example, a lot of opportunity, because a lot of people do want to innovate in the process. And I think what you’re offering right now, it sounds really, really cool. And I think it’s gonna be a very good way. So I’m curious too, as a founder, obviously, you envision about what Property Raptor will become, what do you think, three years or even more than that, how would Property Raptor serve and benefit the clients, and how do you envision to develop into?
Justin Lau: Yeah, so at the moment, we are Property Raptor is essentially a SAaS, software as a service. And we are seeing that a lot of agencies are signing up dozens of agents at a time, and we’re getting good traction in just solving an immediate problem for each of those agents, so they get adoption. And over time, as we grow the sales team, I’m sure that we’ll grow quickly into different countries in different regions. You know, we’ll be able to localise languages and compliance rules and so on, we’re already doing that. One of the most interesting parts of Raptor is the ability for all Raptor instances and all Raptor users to be linked to each other. So that’s through our blockchain technology. And so in our case, if you have an agency in the UK with infantry that they want to sell, but they have nobody to sell it to, it would be very easy for them to connect with agencies in Hong Kong or China, where there are clients, and the AI can figure out, you know what, you have these assets in the UK from a different agency, or I’m gonna have these clients in this region of the world, and they match together, right? Or you can have developers who would have developed a module off Property Raptor, and they could release the inventory through the blockchain to agencies from around the world, instead of what they do now, instead of flying around to Hong Kong and China and Australia and New York, and setting up showrooms and events in hotels, and paying hundreds of thousands of dollars just to throw an event. And so in this way, the blockchain technology allows different instances of Raptor to connect to each other, which we hope eventually anyway will become the largest blockchain property listing portal anywhere in the world. And I think that’s the real value of what we have is not just as a CRM SAAS platform, this is not just a CRM, I mean, we are CRM on steroids here, which is a CRM plus lead generation, lead nurturing, marketing automation, inventory management system, all in one. So that in itself is compelling for clients. But the ability to link up all of those instances together and allow the clients that wish to be connected with other Raptor agencies and developers to connect with each other is generating huge value. And I think, you know, we will create a massive community network of agencies and developers, but really all because they wanted to solve an immediate CRM lead generation, marketing automation problem.
Darren Wong: I see. I sound really excited, because I think a lot companies want to have the innovations that I think, obviously, you’re one of the players in Hong Kong or in Asia that wants to actively do that. So for people who are interested to know more about Property Raptors and about your work, how to get people to find out more about it and talk to you?
Justin Lau: Well, obviously, we have a website that everybody can go into, propertyraptor.com. There’s a lot of information on that. You can book yourself a tour of the system and it will happily run through demos. We do literally dozens of demos a week, and to all kinds of different clients around the world. We’re catering for all kinds of agencies. And when we first came into this, we probably didn’t realise the different agency verticals that exist in the market, there’s master agents, international associations, domestic sales actions, domestic developers, agencies that sell domestic developments to projects to a domestic buys overseas, to local buys, it is all kinds of different agencies, and large and small. And so we are attracting a lot of different agencies in just through our website to book tours and sign up to Raptor.
Darren Wong: Thanks a lot for your time. I think a lot of people will benefit from that. And hopefully come on board another show next time.
Justin Lau: No problem at all. Thank you, Darren.
Darren Wong: Thank you. Have a good day. Thanks.
Darren Wong:所以Justin,歡迎你來到本集節目。
Justin Lau:謝謝Darren邀請我。
Darren Wong: 是的,所以這真的很令人興奮,因為我聽說了很多關於你們的事情。你們正在做的事情很了不起,推動了香港的房地產科技領域。這個產品聽起來真的很酷。所以顯然有這個機會能邀請你來到這個節目真的很好。所以在開始前,你介意向觀眾介紹一下你自己,以及是Property Raptor嗎?
Darren Wong:這非常有趣,因為我們談過了這整個過程,我甚至可以想像自己,在我和不同的人談論房地產科技之前,我花了很多時間去難理解這個難題,而且我認識的很多經紀人和經紀人都有同樣的問題。所以有很多事情要處理,很多細微的管理,太多方面令CRM系統有時候很難理解,因為現在,你的答案對他們來說大多很複雜,給了他們很多要處理和理解的事情要。所以當你想到這一點時很有趣。那麼,當介紹給房地產公司和專業人士時,你遇到什麼挑戰呢,當你想談談你們正在銷售的Property Raptor和你們的產品的時候?
Darren Wong: 很好。因為甚至我也有同樣的感覺,比如說亞洲,機會很多,因為很多人確實想在這個過程中創新。我覺得你現在提供的產品,聽起來真的、真的很酷。我覺得是會是個很好的方法。所以我也很好奇,作為一個創始人,很明顯,你預期Property Raptor未來的發展會怎樣,你怎麼看三年或更長的時間後,Property Raptor將如何為客戶服務並使其受益,您有什麼關於未來的發展的設想?
The mortgage is undeniably the aspiring property-owner’s go-to; so today we have people from Roots ready to explain the sometimes confounding process of applying for a mortgage.
Mortgage: A mortgage is a debt instrument, secured by the collateral of specified real estate property, that the borrower is obliged to pay back with a predetermined set of payments. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/mortgage.asp
Loan Ceiling: A loan ceiling is the maximum amount that a financial institution will lend an individual, family or business. https://bit.ly/3krgL4i
Hong Kong Inter Bank Offer Rate (HIBOR): The Hong Kong Interbank Offered Rate, known by its abbreviation HIBOR, is the benchmark interest rate, stated in Hong Kong dollars, for lending between banks within the Hong Kong market. https://bit.ly/2IrTiCP
This disclaimer informs readers/audience that the views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text/video belong solely to the author & participant, and not necessarily to the participant’s employer, organization, committee or other group or individual.
As it can be difficult to catch some minor errors, transcripts may contain a few typos or inaccuracies.
This might be painfully obvious – Please note the following legal conditions:
Denzity owns the copyright in and to all content in and transcripts of Denzity’s video programs and publications (collectively referred to as “Denzity Materials”, with all rights reserved and its right of publicity.
You are welcome to share the below transcript (up to 500 words but not more) in media articles (e.g., The South China Morning Post, Bloomberg, New York Times), on your website, in a non-commercial article or blog post (e.g., Medium and WordPress), and/or on a personal social media account for non-commercial purposes, provided that you include attribution to “Denzity” and link back to the denzity.io/blog URL. For the sake of clarity, media outlets with advertising models are permitted to use excerpts from the transcript per the above.
No one is authorized to copy any portion of the Denzity Materials or use Denzity’s name, image or likeness for any commercial purpose or use, including without limitation inclusion in any books, e-books, book summaries or synopses, or on a commercial website or social media site (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) that offers or promotes your or another’s products or services.
Alright, let’s get back to the transcript of the show. Enjoy!
▶ Transcript [English & Chinese]
Darren Wong: So hey, everyone. Welcome to the show.
Joe Cheng: Hi.
Kyle Yeung: Hi, how are you doing?
Darren Wong: Very good. Very good. So I want to say thank you for coming on, because mortgage is a very big topic in real estate for sure. And then, not many people actually tackled that, except for the traditional professional like bankers, and so on. So having someone like you guys, which is very interesting product. I think it’s very cool idea. And then thanks to Elliott for introducing us together. I think that the audience will appreciate to learn more about mortgages and how to do it for first-time buyers. So start from the beginning, would you mind telling us about your background? Let’s start with Joe and then Kyle.
Joe Cheng: Okay, sure. Thank you there for the opportunity. So my name is Joe, and I’m a co-founder of Roots, together with Kyle who is also here today. So a little bit description about my service. After I graduated from the UK, I came back to Hong Kong, started to work for private banks, one of the Swedish private banks in Hong Kong, for around four and a half, five years. Then, I feel like big corporates might not be the thing for me for the future, or for my career. So I started doing an MBA in HKUST, where I meet Kyle. So together, we both are the ones who don’t want to work for big corporates and want to start something for ourselves. So together with some of the background that Kyle might talk to you about later on his profile, we started Roots, because we think that we have the network and we have the intelligence or the professional background to help Hong Kong homebuyers to get their mortgage done as soon as possible and as fast as they can to make sure that they can complete the whole process online.
Darren Wong: Kyle, how about yourself?
Kyle Yeung: So, I graduated from the USA. And then I came back after graduation. Similar to Joe, worked in big corporates for a couple of years, I was in accounting and finance field. And then after a couple years, I just thought that time tech was booming, and I want to learn more about how startups work and all that. So I decided to go into MBA, and I met Joe there, and actually joined, I actually went through a lot of ideas on what sort of startups that we can potentially start. And our experience taught us that mortgage is something that a lot of people know about, but also at the same time don’t know about. For example, one of our common friends who went through the mortgage process with a very strong solid background, but ended up almost losing her deposit for the property because the mortgage process pretty much sort of screwed her up, without the lack of a better term, because of the complication and all that. And we found out Joe, and our knowledge was able to help the process to refine and make it more simpler, make it more straightforward for the people in Hong Kong who wants to purchase property. So that’s how we started and it’s been a year or so and things have been going well so far. So yeah, now, here we are. We’re hoping to expand our company in the next year or two.
Darren Wong: Yeah, when I learned about your business, it’s a really cool idea is something that like, Oh, I never thought that would be for us. That is such as something that you think that in 2020, people already built that product out. But no one’s doing that except for you guys so far. So before coming, talking about Roots, your company and what do you guys do, would you mind telling the audience who might not be familiar about the mortgage landscape in Hong Kong?
[00:03:52] Kyle Yeung: [00:03:52] So basically, mortgage is like a loan for property owned or purchased as a collateral, so the loan is secured against the value of your home until it’s paid off. And given Hong Kong is the number one, or most expensive city to live in the property price are close to USD 2K per square feet on average, and 90% of the property purchase in Hong Kong requires a mortgage. So because how expensive it is, not many people can full pay the property upon purchase, and the average mortgage size is around 4 million Hong Kong dollars. That being said, we found out a lot of potential buyers do not understand what mortgages as I said and how to obtain a mortgage, resulting in over 300, 400 cases of forfeit of deposit a year and adds up to 400 million Hong Kong dollars in 2019 alone. So on average, we’re talking about at least 1 to 2 case of forfeit of deposit that happened last year.
Darren Wong: I see. So what’s the process to obtain a mortgage? When should you do so within the real estate investing process, and for that, how does Roots help in the whole process?
[00:05:14] Kyle Yeung: So oftentimes in Hong Kong, investors will apply for a mortgage from the banks in Hong Kong after they place their initial deposit for the property they want to purchase. And the mortgage application process can take anywhere from two weeks to two months. Therefore, like we always encourage our investors, homebuyers to act on the mortgage application as soon as they place their deposit and allow sufficient time to complete the purchase. The day that a buyer usually has to pay the outstanding amount to the seller is around 90 days in general. So usually the application process which takes two weeks to two months will be sufficient to process the property purchase process. Some part of the world is very different. They have something what we call “approval in principle”, that means that the potential homebuyers can go to a bank before placing a deposit for the purchase and get a pre-approval that says how much the bank is willing to loan you. So with this, the buyer can confidently place deposit on a property based on the pre-approval loan amount. So as we see the difference here, the biggest risk we see for homebuyers and investors in Hong Kong is that they have to place a deposit first, and check with the bank to see whether the bank is willing to provide them a mortgage. And oftentimes we see that homebuyers fail to obtain mortgage from a bank and have to forfeit the deposit place because they don’t understand the process and how things work. So we encourage homebuyers to talk to mortgage consultants like us, because we work closely with the banks, we are familiar with the process and we can do all the numbers crunching beforehand to make sure the buyer profile fit within the bank’s approval guideline. And at the same time, we can increase the approval rate. So lower the risk at the same time.
Darren Wong:I see. So for typical mortgage, for an apartment or a house, what should a homeowner expect to get? I mean in terms of rates, LTV and payment term, etc.
[00:07:30] Joe Cheng: [00:07:29] So in Hong Kong, nowadays homebuyers can get up to a loan of 90% for private estates and 95% for subsidies public housings. In order to get the maximum 90% of mortgage, the homebuyer has to have no property under their name, as well as the property price has to be below 10 million Hong Kong dollar. Anything about 10 million Hong Kong dollar we have a maximum loan ceiling of 50% of the property price. For interest rates, as of now, August 2020, it will be around 2% or 2.5% total, depending on the HIBOR, what we call Hong Kong interbank offered rate, and the payment term can go up to around 30 years maximum. Also, bank offers cash rebates to new mortgage applicants to attract the patients some cash rebate would be up to 1% of the loan amount approved, but the cash rate going down right now because of the uncertainty over the market. So you expect around 0.2 to 0.5% of the total loan amount approved.
Darren Wong: I see. And so how does the lender assess a project and how the key terms vary?
[00:08:40] Kyle Yeung: [00:08:40] That is a very good question. So, the banks usually look at the two big things. The first thing is the property, the security, the collateral, and at the same time their customer profile. In terms of the property, the bank will assess based on the type of the property and the age of the property. Banks typically favour private estates, such as Tai Koo Shing. These are private estates. They prefer these over village house or tenement buildings, which we call Tong Lou, the ones without the elevator. Applying for a mortgage usually using a favoured property as collateral, will likely allow the borrower to obtain a more favourable terms such as a longer term loan or a lower interest rate. On the other hand, the bank will assess the lenders’ profile based on their income, their age, the credit score, and banks typically favour applicants with stable income and they have a tighter policy for self-employed applicants and older advocate applicants in terms of age will typically lead to a shorter long term. So again, for anyone who’s interested in the property to purchase, looking for mortgage, it’s better to ask for a mortgage consultant beforehand, make sure that they can get the maximum loan amount that they can.
Darren Wong: So on that note, how about for married couple or a family with a kid, or let’s say different income level of the household, how does that affect the people as well?
[00:10:26] Kyle Yeung: Well, typically, if I tell you a married couple wants to purchase a property together, the banks will access them together. They will assess both of their profiles in terms of their income, and their age and the credit score together. If let’s say one of the applicant is younger than the other, they will usually take the lower age and they will take both of their income together as the total household income and because of that, with two sets of income, usually married couples will be able to purchase a property with the higher value compared to a person who is a single-person household.
Darren Wong: I see. So what are some points to know for first-time buyers who was applying for a mortgage? Any tips for them?
[00:11:22] Joe Cheng: [00:11:22] So I guess there are three major points for first-time homebuyers. The first one is obviously affordability. So as Kyle just mentioned, there was a household income so called “stress tests” required for anyone who wish to purchase a property in Hong Kong, that applies the mortgage. To put it in the simplest term, for every 10,000 Hong Kong dollar of salary, it will get you around 1 million Hong Kong dollar worth of mortgage loans. So given that there’s no other outstanding repayment that will be the simplest term in order to calculate the stress test. The second point will be choice of banks. So there are so many banks in Hong Kong that offers mortgages, and the Big Four will be called HSBC, Bank of China, Hang Seng bank and Standard Charter, they are the better ones with better process and faster approval timeframe. Most of the mid-tier banks will have a better cash rebate as what we just talked about to attract clients, but they’re more picky in terms of property type, and at the application profile. The third point will be documentations. So the below will be mandatory documents required from every bank to apply for mortgage, including your identity proof, which normally would be the Hong Kong ID, salary proof, your tax receipt, the latest three months of bank statements as well as the sales and purchase agreement, these documents are necessary in order to kick start the application. Other banks might have required follow up documents, depending on the situation and applicants to facilitate the approval process. So I guess these are the three main points: affordability, what banks are you going to apply, and what documents you need before you are going to apply for a mortgage?
Darren Wong: I see. So obviously, I look into Roots, and saying that you guys are solving the troublesome of applying for mortgage application one by one. So can you tell us more about how you guys help the home buyer to approve his process and secure the mortgage?
[00:13:21] Joe Cheng: Okay, so as what Kyle has said, we saw a lot of forfeit of deposit or mortgage reject cases in the last few years. Actually, there are around 400 case every year. So as we are talking right now, there’s possibly one case out there, who just forfeit the deposit because of mortgage rejection. So at Roots, we can help to solve this rigid and untransparent mortgage process by reversing the existing journey in Hong Kong. As what Kyle has said there was there are some sort of “approval in principle” elsewhere in the world, but not in Hong Kong. So by first knowing what banks are willing to offer you before placing your deposit. With our risk engine, we can help eliminate the risk of unsuccessful purchase due to denied mortgage applications, making sure that you have the right application for the right bank to complete your home purchase.
Darren Wong: I see. So obviously, as a proptech founder like myself and you guys, how do you envision room to grow into? What kind of scalability to features and so on like that?
[00:14:25] Kyle Yeung: So while we started off in Hong Kong because we’re born and raised here, we actually visited Taiwan end of last year and attended the Taipei FinTech week, and we realised that’s Taiwan could be our next expansion point. Taiwan is actually very similar to Hong Kong in terms of demographics through a large portion of up and rising younger population, which faces daily challenges and getting a mortgage and property because of the complicated process. So while their pain points might be similar, but not exactly the same, but having said that our solution and our experience in Hong Kong understanding of the banking system in Hong Kong, maybe we can apply our solution with a little tweak and apply it in Taiwan. But I mean, having said that, we have what we hope that we can complete our R&D and revamp by the end of this year, which is happening soon, so stay tuned, and establish our roots in Hong Kong. So once we build a solid foundation in the local market, I think, by the end of maybe next year, we’re ready to expand into other locations, and or any other places in the world.
Darren Wong: That’s really cool. Because I think you guys keep the tagline to Expedia, for finding mortgage. And I think that’s so cool that you even can do that. So I think I have some side question for you guys. Have you thought of, for example, there’s some houses might be looking for a second lien or third-lien loan, will you guys consider that and are you guys sticking with residential, and then or going expand for different asset and property type?
Kyle Yeung: As of right now, just in Hong Kong, most of our transactions are focused in residential properties, technically speaking, if any customer coming into us, asking us to help them out looking for a mortgage, actually any type of property we can do. So it’s basically the same process for us. But then again, since most of the transactions are focused in the residential properties, so I would just tell you that our focus right now will still be the residential market.
Joe Cheng: So I guess, what we want to say is Roots is an online robot advisory platform, which allows homebuyers to apply and compare mortgage, just like you said, as simple as booking a trip on Expedia. The second thing is typical mortgage property purchase is risky, and it requires homebuyers to place deposit before they apply for mortgage in Hong Kong, which is not the ideal way to do it. However, it is the way and we have to stick to it. And we’ve tried to reverse the process by using Roots to help analyse your profile, and increase your mortgage approval rate through our predictive algorithm. And that’s what we are trying to do right now, to help people bring back their roots to Hong Kong.
Darren Wong: I see. And I’m sure like for a tech product, I think it’s very interesting because it’s more consumer facing, and I think where people are stuck at is people that don’t have the luxury to learn the knowledge, and then to understand the process. So you know, I’m sure a lot of people will get benefit from your product. So what kind of take away would you want the audience to have from this video?
Darren Wong: I see. For people who want to talk to you more about the subject, and then your service and so on, what’s the best way you suggest them to reach out to you?
Joe Cheng: So if they’re interested to know more about how to purchase a home, or how to apply for a mortgage, you can reach out to us through WhatsApp at 97872498, or our email compare@hkroots.io. So feel free to reach out to any of these emails or WhatsApp, Joe, myself and Kyle will be able to help you with any questions you have.
Darren Wong: I’m sure that I’ll put everything in the show notes. And then obviously, I’ll have a profile for you guys to tell people more about how to do a mortgage in Hong Kong or in Taiwan, for say. And I want to say like thanks for coming in. And then there are actually a lot of questions about mortgage I want to ask you more, but we’ll leave it for round two in the future then.
Kyle Yeung: Sounds good. Appreciate for the opportunity.
Darren Wong: Yeah, no worries. And then I got the next time. Thank you so much. Cheers.
Kyle Yeung: Thank you. Bye.
Darren Wong: 大家好。歡迎收看節目。
Joe Cheng: 嗨。
Kyle Yeung: 嗨,你好嗎?
Darren Wong: 非常好,很好。那我想感謝你來到我們的節目,因為按揭貸款在房地產行業是一個非常重要的話題。然後,除了像銀行家這樣的傳統專業人士,沒有多少人真正解决這個問題。所以有你們這樣的人,你們有這個非常有趣的產品,我覺得這個主意很酷。然後感謝Elliot將我們互相介紹。我認為觀眾將很高興瞭解更多有關按揭貸款以及如何為首次置業者提供貸款。所以從頭開始,你能告訴我們你的背景嗎?讓我們先從Joe開始,然後到Kyle。
Joe Cheng: 好的,當然。謝謝你給我這個機會。我是Joe,我和今天也在這裡的Kyle是Roots的聯合創始人。讓我對我的服務做一點描述。我從英國畢業後回到香港,開始在香港其中的一所瑞典私人銀行工作大約四年半,五年。那麼,我覺得大公司可能不會成為我未來或事業的目標。所以我開始在香港科技大學攻讀MBA,在那裡我認識了Kyle。所以我們都是那些不太想為大公司工作的人,而是想為自己開創事業。囙此,結合Kyle稍後可能會在他的個人介紹中跟你談論的一些背景,我們創辦來Roots,因為我們認為我們有這樣的資源和人脈,我們有智慧或專業背景來幫助香港置業者儘快完成按揭貸款,以確保他們能够在網上完成整個過程。
Darren Wong:我明白了。那麼獲得按揭貸款的過程是怎樣的呢?在房地產投資過程中,你應該在什麼時候這樣做?Roots在這整個過程中能夠提供什麼幫助?
Kyle Yeung: 所以在香港,投資者通常會在他們為他們想要購買的房產支付了首期之後向香港的銀行申請按揭貸款。申請按揭貸款的過程可能需要兩周的時間到兩個月。因此,就像我們一直鼓勵我們的投資者和置業者一樣,我們鼓勵他們在提交按揭貸款申請後立即採取行動並留出足够的時間完成購買。通常買家必須向賣方支付未付金額的日子大概在90天左右。所以通常申請過程需要兩周到兩個月就足够了處理物業購買流程。但在世界上有些地方這個流程很不一樣。他們有一些我們稱之為“Approval in Principle”的東西,這意味著有意置業的人在為支付首期之前,可以先去銀行,並獲得一個確認說明銀行有多少錢願意借給你。而有了這一點,購房者就可以放心地根據預先準予的貸款金額,支付房產的首期。正如我們所看到的分別,香港置業者和投資者面臨的最大風險是,他們必須先存款,然後向銀行査詢看看銀行是否願意為他們提供按揭貸款。我們經常看到置業者因為不瞭解流程的運作原理,而導致首期被沒收。所以我們鼓勵置業者和像我們這樣的按揭顧問談談,因為我們與銀行密切合作,我們對流程非常熟悉,我們可以事先先計算所有數字,以確保買家紀錄符合銀行的準予指南。同時,我們可以提高準予率。所以同時降低風險。
Darren Wong: 我明白了。那麼一般單位或房子的按揭貸款,房主應該期望得到什麼?我指在費率、貸款價值比和付款條件等方面。
Joe Cheng: 所以在香港,現在的置業者可以獲得最高90%的貸款用於私人房產,95%用於補貼公共房屋。為了得到最高90%的按揭貸款,置業者者必須在其名下沒有房產,而且房價必須低於1000萬港元。任何高於1000萬港元的房產,我們的最高貸款上限為物業價格的50%。利率方面,現在這刻,2020年8月,這將是大約2%或2.5%,這取決於HIBOR,我們稱之為香港銀行同業拆息,以及還款期限最長可達30年左右。此外,銀行還向新申請按揭貸款的人提供現金回扣,以吸引按揭貸款申請,一些現金回扣將高達準予貸款金額的1%,但由於市場的不確定性,現金利率正在下降。所以你現在預期準予貸款總額的0.2%至0.5%。
Joe Cheng:所以我想對於首次置業者來說有三個要點。第一個明顯是負擔能力。正如Kyle剛才提到的,有所謂家庭收入,因此,任何想要在香港購買房產的人都需要進行所謂的“壓力測試”,這適用於按揭。用最簡單的話來說,每1萬港元的薪水,你就可以得到價值約100萬港元的按揭貸款。所以如果沒有其他未償還貸款,這是計算壓力測試最簡單的方法。第二點是選擇的銀行。香港有很多銀行提供抵押貸款,四大銀行為滙豐銀行(HSBC)、中國銀行(Bank of China)、恒生銀行(Hang Seng Bank)和渣打銀行(Standard Charter),它們都是流程好、審批時間快的銀行。正如我們剛才所說的,為了吸引客戶,大多數中端銀行都會有更好的現金回扣,但他們在物業類型和申請方面更挑剔簡介。第三點是文件。以下這些是每家銀行申請按揭貸款的必須文件,包括的身份證明,通常包括香港身份證、收入證明、稅務收據、最近三個月的銀行帳單以及銷售和購買同意書,這些檔案是開始申請程序所必需的。其他銀行根據情况和申請者。可能需要其他進一步的文件,以促進審批過程。所以我想這是三個要點:負擔能力,哪一間銀行,以及在申請按揭貸款之前,您需要哪些文件?
Darren Wong: 我明白了。很明顯,我看到Roots介紹說你們正在解决一個個申請按揭貸款的所遇到的麻煩。那麼,你能告訴我們更多關於你們如何幫助置業者來確保申請通過批核和按揭成功?
Joe Cheng: 好吧,正如Kyle所說的,過去幾年我們看到了很多放棄首期或申請受到拒絕或的案例。事實上,每年大約有400個案例。所以我們現在正在討論的時候,香港的某處可能有一個案子,因為銀行拒絕按揭貸款而要賠上首期。因此在Roots,我們可以通過扭轉香港現有的程序,來幫助解決這種嚴格死板而且透明度低的按揭申請過程。又如Kyle所說的,在世界其他地方有某種“Approval in Principle”的機制,你可以在支付首期之前知道銀行能夠為你提供多少貸款,但在香港沒有。因此通過我們計算風險的程式,我們可以幫助消除因按揭貸款申請被拒而導致購買失敗的風險,確保您能向你選擇的銀行提交有效的申請來完成您的置業程序。
Darren Wong: 我明白了。所以很明顯,作為一個像我和你們這樣的房地產科技公司的創始人,你們如何設想公司的成長?哪方面更具特色、發展性等等?
Darren Wong: 這真的很酷。而且我認為你們用的是像Expedia的廣告語,Roots,尋找按揭貸款。我覺得你們能做到這些實在太酷了。所以我想我有一些其他的問題要問你們。你有沒有想過,比如說,有些房子可能在申請第二份按揭或三按,你們會考慮這一點嗎?你們會專注在住宅物業上,還是離開針對不同的資產和財產類型發展?
Human beings are a social species. We rely on communities to survive and thrive. Communities play an important role in every aspect of our lives. We have communities in our friends, families, workplaces, and so many other places. Being a part of a community can allow us to connect with like-minded people and become more successful. When it comes to real estate investment, a sense of community is more important than ever.
Think about the last time when you searched
for a property. Did you ask your friends and colleagues for advice? Did you
join relevant Facebook groups and forums to get more information? Have you ever
experienced any difficulty in finding reliable information among the tons of
threads? Nowadays, we live in a world where we are overloaded with information.
Making informed decisions can be a challenge due to the real estate industry’s fragmented
and complex nature.
Darren Wong, the co-founder of Denzity, experienced this struggle too. He has
seen lots of misleading information and was unsure who to trust during his real estate exploration.
Buying a property is a huge investment. At
the worst of all, people may lose their hard-earned savings by trusting
ill-intentioned people! Because of this pain, Denzity is born. Darren and other
co-founders share the same goal – make real estate participation simpler and
more accessible for everyone. The platform sources reliable insights, news, and
information directly from real estate experts. To put it in simple words,
Denzity is a global community of industry experts.
The importance of community in real
estate
Denzity is one of the hottest PropTech ventures in Hong Kong. It makes use of
advanced technology to create a vibrant global community of real estate
experts. It is a place of opportunity! With a community of experts looking out
for your best interests and working together for a common goal, Denzity hopes
to alleviate your struggles and drive your confidence to begin your real estate
investment journey. Whether that is looking for your first home or starting
your investment portfolio, a strong community can give the support you need to
succeed. Breaking all the myths and misconceptions, Denzity provides sound
insights, open dialogues, and peer-reviewed content from professional real
estate agents, developers, world-class investors, advisors and more.
A strong community can also enrich your
experience during your real estate exploration. The selling point of Denzity is
its strong network. The team recruits a network of global experts to provide
you with powerful insights and reliable sources to succeed in the world of real
estate. There is no geographical boundary. You can find news and insights on
different real estate hotspots such as Vietnam and Malaysia instantly through
Denzity. Getting tired of all the serious and data-heavy information about real
estate? You can also find interesting, unconventional topics in the field, such
as feng shui and sustainability! This is why Denzity is special – people are at
the centre of everything.
Hong Kong Properties Are
Seriously Unaffordable For Millennials
Hong Kong people would agree that the dream of owning a home is challenging for most millennials. On top of the land shortage, the increasing cost of living has taken away millennials’ dream to save up for their dream home. Even though this news wouldn’t surprise many people, how bad has the situation become? According to the annual Demographia Housing Affordability Survey, Hong Kong is the most expensive city to live in – 10th consecutive years! The status is unlikely to be toppled soon. A Hong Kong family would need to save up for almost 21 years, which is around twice the time needed for the runner ups, to afford a home in the city. What’s worse? Our Hong Kong Foundation, a think tank established by former chief executive Tung Chee-Hwa, predicts the average flat size will contract further to less than 430 sq. ft in the next few years, accounting for 45 percent of private housing supply in 2019. Imagine a 400 sq. ft space is roughly the size of a typical two-car garage – there is barely any wiggle room left with a kitchen, bathroom, and a single-bed mattress!
These conditions not only have caused bad living
standards for millennials but their financial status is also in a tough
situation. According to Numbeo (a research and data site), a single Hong Kong
person’s monthly cost is no less than HKD 8,000. With an average monthly rent
of more than HKD 10,000 for a 400 sq. ft flat, millennials might only have a
few thousand left for savings. With all the increasing expenditures for daily
necessities and expensive living costs, millennials barely save any to invest
in Hong Kong real estate. It is time to rethink, “Is there a better place to
invest in real estate?”, and “Is Hong Kong suitable for real estate
investments?”
With social unrest and the COVID-19 pandemic, Hong Kong
millennials grow interests in Southeast Asian real estate markets, such as the
Malaysia real estate market and the Vietnam real estate market. They feel
Southeast Asian countries have a better economic environment, while barriers to
participating in real estate investing are lower than most emerging markets.
According to Global Property Guide, the average price per sq. ft in Hong Kong
is HKD 20,570, while average prices per sq. ft in Malaysia and Vietnam are HKD
2,480 and HKD 1,643. Purchasing a Hong Kong property costs almost ten times
more expensive than that in other Southeast Asian countries! No wonder that
Hong Kong millennials have decided to look elsewhere.
Hong Kong millennials must realize that there are plenty
of real estate investment opportunities outside of Hong Kong waiting for them
to discover. With the rise of PropTech, investors can now be more accessible to
global real estate investment opportunities and have a better-informed decision
to put their hard-earned savings to work. With our platform (https://denzity.io/), we let investors focus on what matters most: getting a
better sense of where, what, and how to invest in real estate worldwide that
they have never thought of before effortlessly.