Tag: proptech hong kong

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.

Key Discussions

▶  Real estate focused CRM

▶ Challenge of real estate digitization

▶ Property Raptor vision

▶ Connect with Justin:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-lau-897b5822/

▶ Source & Supporting:

 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.

https://www.hqo.co/what-is-proptech-and-what-does-it-mean/

SMS: SMS is the abbreviation for short message service, better known as text messages.

https://www.androidauthority.com/what-is-sms-280988/

Property Raptor: https://www.propertyraptor.com/

IMS: http://www.imsglobal.org/home

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.

https://mailchimp.com/marketing-glossary/marketing-automation/

Inventory management: It is the whole process of handling and sorting the goods in an inventory of a company or a business.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/inventory-management.asp

Lead generation: It is a way of approaching potential customers or audience in order to increase their chances of making the purchase.

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/beginner-inbound-lead-generation-guide-ht

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.

https://www.euromoney.com/learning/blockchain-explained/what-is-blockchain

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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？

Justin Lau: 當然，我在大約兩年半前創立了Property Raptor，我在過去的工作，實際上是在金融和銀行領域。所以我做了十多年的銀行家，在資本市場工作，和客戶談論銷售股票，並為他們提供買賣建議，隨後進入私人股權領域，在科技領域和私人股權方面做了大量工作。你知道，實際上是兩年半前，我萌生關於Property Raptor的念頭。我們在那個領域做了大量的投資。我們從很多不同的機構和不同的市場投資者都會告訴我們他們認為房地產軟件領域的服務確實不足，特別是在亞洲。尤其是，我的一個好友在大灣區經營一家代理商。他說，他不能進一步擴張業務的最大原因是，軟件並不能滿足他們管理更大業務的需求。這就是啟發有關Property Raptor的想法的原因。

Darren Wong: 我明白了。這真的很有趣，因為很多人都在想，你怎麼才能讓房地產經紀人有一個更好的接洽流程？所以，你能詳細說明一下Property Raptor的起源嗎，以及客戶關係管理系統以及關注客戶關係管理系統為何對房地產企業如此重要？

Justin Lau：大家都知道香港是一個全球化的大城市。最重要的產業是金融、財產和零售業等。但在這個都市裡真正落後的，尤其是在房地產業，不僅在香港，而且在全球任何地方的房地產業的阻礙都是轉換到數位化的過程。但這行業的數位化的過程實在非常非常緩慢。事實上，它可能是世界上僅次於農業為數位化進程中倒數第二的，這令人難以置信，鑒於這行業在全球和世界各地的規模有多大。所以，當我們發現越來越多的機構告訴我們，他們沒有滿足他們所需的軟件，他們有多個無法正確連接的系統，我們决定建立一個能够在企業級為機構、代理和開發人員提供服務的軟件系統特別對於亞洲來說，這是一個非常好的主意。我們已經看到在房地產科技投資的全球性大幅增長。在2012年，房地產科技的投資只有2億美元，幾乎什麼都沒有，對吧？這是2012年的數字，當世界正在飛速數位化，而他們在房地產科技上花費了2000萬美元，到去年為止大約是80億美元。所以這向你展示了當今市場的增長。問題在於那95%的投資並不在亞洲，而是在美國和北美。因此，我們在亞洲有很多發展數位化的機會。所以我們知道，隨著已開發國家和西方經濟體在房地產科技方面的所有發展，他們並沒有真正考慮到亞洲的複雜性和獨特性，特別當他們建立這些產品時，這就是為什麼當我們與我們的代理商和客戶交談時，他們告訴我們，市場上有軟件，但實際上它們不太符合我們的需要，亦起不了什麼作用。兩年前，我們决定我們要做的是， 在市場上尋找最好的產品，最好的東西，為亞洲獨特的位置建立一個一流的產品，因為我們知道這是一個非常非常複雜的市場，我們所建的房地產的種類是不同的。我們建造許多高樓，在主要的城市建造了許多高樓，到處都有大量的交易和大量的數據。所以我們知道我們必須將這些納入考慮。一旦我們做到了這一點，我想你知道的，把它應用到世界各地，全球範圍內，將是我們最容易的任務。

Darren Wong: 我明白了。可以解釋一下房地產專業人士與客戶接觸的現狀，以及Property Raptor能夠如何改善整個過程嗎？

Justin Lau：對不起，你能再說一遍嗎，對不起，Darren。我剛錯過了。

Darren Wong: 是的。你能解釋一下現在房地產專業人士如何與客戶接觸的狀況，以及您的初創公司將如何改善整個過程嗎？

Justin Lau：是的。所以實際上他們和客戶打交道的管道是非常非常傳統的。是的，他們使用電話，發些電郵，發短信，這些都是他們自己的Gmail帳戶和電話等等。甚至在某些情况下，開發人員和代理機構正在開發Excel試算表，或者共享文件。在更進一步的情況，他們將在Google Docs中共享檔案。在某些情况下，開發商使用傳真將庫存清單傳真給代理商。我不知道今天世上還存在文件傳真，但這正是還在發生的事情。代理商通常同時處理多個項目。所以如果你在考慮新的發展商或新的開發專案，代理同時處理多個開發專案，接近上千個單位，特別是在亞洲，他們要瞭解客戶清單上，誰需要什麼，誰想要什麼，而且由於在任何時候都有數千個可供使用的單位，他們幾乎沒有辦法處理這些清單。根據統計，一個代理商每天可能要花三到四個小時來匹配客戶和庫存，這太難以想像了，對吧？這些都是他們每天所做的事。而他們真正需要的是一個系統來幫助他們自動化他們的流程，自動化任何重複性任務都是十分關鍵的，針對於他們需要什麼來說。這讓他們可以花更多的時間和客戶在一起，銷售房地產，而沒有什麼能真正幫助他們做到這一點。所以我們在Property Raptor所做的就是開發這個系統，它是由IMS開發的，它是亞洲最大的數位機构之一，作為一個獨立的公司它擁有最多的軟體發展人員，為了建立一個能夠真正幫助代理商將正確的客戶與正確的資產匹配起來的系統，但反過來，也可以將正確的資產與正確的客戶匹配起來。所以你會認為他們是一體的，但他們並不是，所以當收到新的房地產資訊時，代理不會去尋找適合它們的客戶，我們所做的是使用先進的人工智慧和資料查詢，並在我們的Property Raptor系統中使用機器學習來幫助客戶匹配資產，然後與客戶匹配資產。這個不是您在所有其他網站上看到的基本篩選功能。Darren可以一直在找一個三臥室，兩個的浴室，帶陽臺，以及在鎮上特定的位置的單位。但是我們要做的是使用人工智慧，運用模糊邏輯，為這些客戶找到最合適的房地產。你會發現事實上，大約有50%的客戶，他們最終購買的東西，並不符合他們最初告訴代理商的規格。所以如果他們買的不是他們告訴代理商的條件，代理商應該如何為他們找到合適的資產？所以有了我們的系統，機構就可以數位化資產，如網站、入口網站和應用程序，以追蹤這些客戶的習慣。然後用這些資訊[00:07:30]為買家匹配正確的資產和公寓。

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？

Justin Lau: 我認為在不同的地方面臨的挑戰是不同的。例如在亞洲，我想想這就是我們的基地，這是我們的後院。我們决定這麼做是因為我們看到了在亞洲的巨大差距。所以在亞洲，他們甚至沒有用任何軟件。我們在亞洲做什麼，香港和新加坡，或越南和印尼，代理商往往會把問題歸咎於員工人數不足，對吧？他們還有更多的樓盤要出售。他們只會雇傭更多的人是因為他們很便宜。雇傭更多的人，站在國際金融公司（IFC）或一些大型建築或地標外發放傳單，希望他們能用這種管道抓住客戶。因此，我們的一個關鍵挑戰疾病上是教育客戶並展示我們的產品如何解决大多數問題和痛點。因此現時我們正在籌款，這樣我們就可以在更廣泛的團隊中擴展自己，從而進一步支持客戶的需求，並真正展示我們平臺的功能，真正使他們能够快速產生更多銷售。所以我們的模式是幫助他們更快地達成交易。正如你所看到的，我想在這種冠狀病毒的環境下，在這場全球大流行的疫情中，所有行業都在非常非常迅速地數位化，因為他們看到了他們的收入縮水，企業受到擠壓，他們試圖找到一種方法，要麼保持市場份額，或是減少金錢損失。我們在Property Raptor中所做的是提高效率以及經營房地產代理的銷售團隊的有效性。所以這就是我們面臨的挑戰之一就是在亞洲教育和展示我們的產品。我認為現在大多數有合理規模的機構，明白他們需要更多的科技，我認為這只是一個不可避免的事實。現在，在其他地區，我認為我們的推廣途徑可能會更容易一些，因為我不需要教育。在歐洲和美國，他們已經在為CRM系統和軟件系統付費，他們正在為CRM系統和潛在客戶開發系統行銷自動化、庫存管理等系統付費，他們已經為所有這些東西買單了。因此，在這些情况下，我們真正的挑戰是展示產品，展示它們的更高的生產效率，一個集的多功能於一體系統能夠如何真正滿足他們的需求，而不是他們嘗試將多個系統連接起來，勉強拼凑出一個解決方案，當他們在多個不同的系統中擁有相同的數據，所以這對他們來說真的不起作用。因為他們如何能夠確保數據能被永久移除？他們甚至不能這麼做。所以我們在不同的地方面臨著不同的挑戰。但我認為實際上是很清楚的，無論客戶在哪裡，我們的機會都很大。

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？

Justin Lau：[00:11:39]是的，所以現在，我們Property Raptor本質上是一個SAAS（軟件即服務）。我們看到很多機構一次於幾十個代理簽約，而我們有辦法可以很好地解决每個代理即時的問題，而他們會習慣使用我們的系統。隨著時間的推移，隨著我們銷售團隊的不斷壯大，我相信我們會迅速發展到不同國家和地區。你知道，我們可以切換成當地語言和配合當地法規和規則等等，而我們已經在做了。Property Raptor最有趣的部分之一是給予所有分布於不同地方的和所有Property Raptor用戶和彼此連結的機會。這是通過我們的區塊鏈科技。所以在我們的案例中，如果你在英國有代理商有房地產想出售，但是他們沒有合適的買家，所以他們很容易就能夠與香港或中國的代理商聯系，如果這些地方有客戶，AI可以發現，你知道嗎，你在英國有來自另一個代理商的資產，或者我會有這些客戶在世界的不同角落，而我能夠讓他們在配對一起，對嗎？或者你可以讓開發人員開發一個脫離Property Raptor以外的模塊，他們可以通過區塊鏈向來自世界各地的代理商發佈庫存，而不是他們現在運作模式，飛到香港、中國、澳大利亞和紐約，設立展廳及在飯店舉辦活動，為舉辦一個活動支付數十萬美元。因此，區塊鏈科技允許不同Raptor用家相互連接，我們希望最終它將成為世界上最大的區塊鏈房地產上市系統。我認為這才是我們的產品所擁有的真正價值，不僅僅是作為一個CRM SAAS平臺，這不僅僅是一個CRM，我的意思是，我們是一個比CRM更出色、有潛力的產品，這是一個CRM再加上潛在客戶開發、潛在客戶培育、行銷自動化、庫存管理系統，所有這些都在一個功能中。所以這本身對客戶來說是很有吸引力的。但是能夠將所有這些功能連接在一起的能力，並允許希望與其他Property Raptor機構和開發人員連接的客戶彼此連接會創造巨大的價值。我想，你知道，我們會為代理商和發展商建立一個龐大的社區網絡，但實際上都是因為他們想解决CRM的潛在客戶開發、行銷自動化問題。

Darren Wong: 我明白了。我聽起來真的很令人興奮，因為我覺得很多公司都希望有創新的科技，我認為，很明顯，你是在香港或亞洲的開發者之一而你希望大家積極地這樣做。因此，對於那些有興趣瞭解更多關於Property Raptors和你的工作的人，他們能夠任何瞭解更多關於它的資訊並與你交流？

Justin Lau: 顯然我們有一個人人都可以進入的網站，propertyraptor.com，網站上面有很多這方面的資訊。您可以為自己預約一個系統教程，它將愉快地進行演示。我們每週做幾十個演示，面向世界各地不同的客戶。我們為各種機構提供服務。而當我們第一次進入這一領域時，我們可能沒有意識到存在著不同的代理市場在市場上，有主代理、國際代理、國內銷售機構、將國內開發專案銷售給在海外本土買家的機購，以及本地買家，有各種各樣的機構，有大有小的規模。所以我們吸引了很多不同的機構只需通過我們的網站預訂並註冊成為Raptor。

Darren Wong: 非常感謝您抽出時間。我想很多人會從中受益。而且希望你能參加下一次的節目。

Justin Lau：沒問題。謝謝你，Darren。Darren Wong: 謝謝。祝您今天過得愉快。謝謝。

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.

Key Discussions: 

▶ The Process to Obtain a Mortgage

▶ Tips for Getting a Mortgage for the First Time

▶ Roots’s Vision

▶ Connect with Roots (Kyle Yeung/Joe Cheng):

• Roots : https://hkroots.io/#/ 
• Kyle Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-yeung-1ab3b639/ 
• Joe Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-cheng-a26a45110/ 

▶ Source & Supporting:

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 

Maturity Date: The maturity date is the date on which the principal amount of a note, draft, acceptance bond or other debt instrument becomes due. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/maturitydate.asp 

Approval in Principle: Approval in principle (AIP) is an agreement stating a bank’s promise to lend you money for a home loan. https://bit.ly/3nahNDA 

Mortgage Consultants: Essentially, mortgage consultants exist to help people or businesses to find the right mortgage. https://bit.ly/35kN5Si 

Stress test (mortgage): In finance, planning for a worst-case scenario is called a stress test. It involves modeling a bad scenario before an investment is made. https://www.ratehub.ca/blog/how-to-stress-test-your-mortgage/ 

Collateral: A collateral mortgage is a type of loan secured against the borrower’s property (home) https://bit.ly/36rM8a6 

Deposit: an amount of money that you pay as the first part of the total payment for something: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/deposit 

Subsidized Public Housing: If you live in public housing, the housing authority owns your building and is your landlord. https://www.masslegalhelp.org/housing/public-subsidized-differences 

Off-Plan Property: An off-plan investment strategy consists of purchasing a property before it has started construction. https://winsoncapital.com/blog/what-is-off-plan-investment/ 

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 

Cash Rebate: With a cash back mortgage, your lender advances you a cash lump sum when your mortgage closes.  https://www.ratehub.ca/cash-back-mortgages

Taipei FinTech Week: https://www.fintechtaipei.tw/en/ 

Supporting:

Blog.hkroots.io: https://blog.hkroots.io/ 

▶ 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.

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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:Kyle，你呢？

Kyle Yeung ：所以，我從美國畢業，畢業後就回來了。跟Joe有點相似，我在大公司工作了幾年，我在會計和金融領域工作。幾年後，我認為當時科技發展十分蓬勃，我想瞭解更多關於創業公司的運作。所以我决定攻讀MBA，我在那裡認識了Joe，事實上加入後，我對我們可以創辦哪些類型的創業公司有了很多想法。我們的經驗告訴我們按揭貸款是很多人都知道但同時又太理解的事情。例如，我們的一個共同朋友有著非常有實力的背景，但按揭貸款的過程幾乎把她搞砸了，我沒有更貼切的描述，衍生的問題讓她幾乎失去了她的首期存款。然後我們找到了Joe，我們的知識可以幫助我們改進讓它更簡單，令那些想購置業的香港人能更直接申請按揭。我們就是這樣開始了一年了，到目前為止一切都很順利。所以是的，現在我們在這裏，我們希望在未來一兩年內擴大公司規模。

Darren Wong: 是的，當我知道你的生意，這是一個很酷的主意，就像，哦，我從沒想過我們會有這個服務。你會認為在2020年，人們早已經建立了這種產品。但到目前為止除了你們沒人這麼做。所以在談談你的公司Roots和你們所做的事情之前，你介意告訴那些可能可能不熟悉香港按揭貸款的情況的觀眾？

Kyle Yeung: 基本上，按揭貸款就像以擁有或購買的房產作為抵押的貸款，所以貸款的價值是以你的房屋價值為抵押，直到你還清貸款為止。考慮到香港是世界第一，或者說是生活開支最高昂的城市，房價平均接近每平方英尺2千美元，90%在香港購買的房地產需要抵押貸款。因為它是這麼昂貴，並沒有多少人能够在購買時全額支付房產，而平均抵押貸款約400萬港元。但話說回來，我們發現很多潜在的買家不明白我所說的按揭貸款以及如何獲得貸款，導致每年超過三四百宗沒收首期存款的例子，單單在2019年，加起來就高達四億港元。所以平均來說，我們所說的是至少有一到兩宗沒收首期存款的例子。

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%。

Darren Wong: 我明白了。那麼，貸款人如何評估一個項目，關鍵條款如何變化？

Kyle Yeung: 這是一個很好的問題。所以，銀行通常看兩件事。首先是財產，保證金，還有抵押品，以及客戶個人資料。就物業而言，銀行會根據物業的類型和年齡。銀行通常青睞私人地產，如太古城。這些是私人地產。他們更喜歡這些房子，而不是村屋或我們稱之為“唐樓”的，沒有電梯的公寓。使用銀行偏好的房產作為申請按揭貸款抵押，借款人通常會獲得更優惠的條件，如較長的還款期或更低的利率。另一方面，銀行將評估貸款人的情况，根據他們的收入、年齡、信貸評級，銀行通常傾向於收入穩定的申請人，他們對自雇申請人和年齡較大的申請人的年齡通常會導致較短的還款期。所以同樣，對於任何有興趣購買房產、尋求按揭貸款的人，最好事先向按揭顧問諮詢，確保他們能够獲得他們能提供的最大貸款額。

Darren Wong: 那麼，對於已婚夫婦或有孩子的家庭來說呢，家庭收入水准不同，這對人們的影響如何？

Kyle Yeung: 嗯，通常，如果我告訴你，一對已婚夫婦想一起購買房產，銀行會將兩人放在一起評估。他們將評估他們的個人資料，從他們的收入、年齡和信用評分來看。假設一個申請人比另一個年輕，他們會的通常取較低的年齡，他們會將他們的收入加起來作為家庭總收入，因為有了兩套收入，通常已婚夫婦可以比單身家庭的人購買價值更高的房產。

Darren Wong: 我明白了。那麼，對於第一次置業及申請按揭貸款的人有什麼建議嗎？

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？

Kyle Yeung: 所以我們在香港出發是因為我們在這裏出生和長大，我們去年底訪問了臺灣，並參加了臺北金融科技周，我們意識到臺灣可以成為我們下一個擴展點。臺灣在人口結構上與香港非常相似，有一大部分正在向上流動發展的年輕人口，但由於獲得抵押貸款和房產複雜的過程，他們每天都面臨挑戰。雖然他們的困難可能相似，但並不完全相同，但或許我們已我們的解決方案和我們香港的經驗、對香港銀行體系的瞭解，或許我們可以稍作調整，將我們的解決方案應用到臺灣。但同時我們也希望在今年年底完成研發和改造，很快就要發生了，所以請繼續關注，在香港紮根。所以一旦我們在本地市場建立了堅實的基礎，我想，也許到明年年底，我們已經準備好擴展到其他地方，或者世界上任何其他地方。

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？

Kyle Yeung: 目前在香港，我們的大部分交易都集中在住宅物業上，如果有客戶要求我們幫助他們尋找抵押貸款，實際上是我們可以做的任何類型的財產。因為我們的流程基本上是一樣的。但話說回來，由於大部分交易都集中在住宅物業上，所以我會說我們現在的焦點仍然是住宅市場。

Darren Wong: 我明白了。我覺得以科技產品來說，我覺得它很有趣，因為它更符合消費者需要，我認為人們的難處是那些沒有機會或時間學習這方面的知識，然後在去瞭解過程的。所以你知道，我相信很多人會從你的產品獲益。那麼你希望觀眾從這集節目中得到什麼樣的收穫呢？

[00:17:16]Joe Cheng: 所以我想，我們想說的是Roots是線上智能諮詢平臺，允許購房者申請和比較按揭貸款，正如您所說，就像在Expedia上預訂行程。第二件事是典型的按揭置業是有風險的，它要求置業者在香港申請抵押貸款之前先支付首期，而這不是理想的方法。但是，這是香港的制度而我們必須遵從。在Roots，我們通過運用預測演算法分析你的個人資料，增加你的按揭貸款批核成功的機率，從而扭轉這個高風險的局面過程。而這正是我們現在所要做的，幫助人們把他們的根帶回香港。

Darren Wong: 我明白了。對於那些想和你進一步談談這個話題、你的服務等等的人，你建議他們從那些管道聯系你們？

Joe Cheng: 如果他們有興趣瞭解更多關於如何置業或如何申請按揭貸款的資訊，您可以通過WhatsApp 97872498 ，或我們的電郵 compare@hkroots.io聯繫我們。所以請隨時通過電郵或WhatsApp聯繫，我 Joe 和 Kyle 可以幫你解决任何問題。

Darren Wong: 我肯定我會把所有的東西都寫在節目記錄裏。顯然，我會給你們一個檔案，讓你們告訴大家有關比如如何在香港或臺灣申請按揭貸款。我想說謝謝你們的到來。實際上我還有很多關於抵押貸款的問題，我想問你更多，但讓我們會把它們留給下次節目機會吧。

Kyle Yeung: 聽起來不錯。感謝你給我這個機會。

Darren Wong: 是的，不用擔心。下次見。非常感謝你。謝謝。

Kyle Yeung: 謝謝。再見。

Original post on [In Chinese]: https://www.am730.com.hk/column/Workplace/%e7%b5%82%e6%a5%b5%e6%b5%b7%e5%a4%96%e7%89%a9%e6%a5%ad%e6%8a%95%e8%b3%87%e6%8c%87%e5%8d%97-232085

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.

香港80後嚴重付不起物業

香港人會同意夢想擁有房產對於香港80後非常困難的。除了土地短缺，生活成本的上漲更是奪走了80後為自己夢想家園儲蓄的夢想。雖然這些都不會讓很多人驚訝，可是情況會變得有多差？根據每年Demographia Housing Affordability Survey，香港連續十年成為生活最昂貴的城市！而且，這情況近期不會被推翻。一個香港家庭需要儲蓄21年才能在自己城市負擔起自己的房子，是其他國度城市人需要的兩倍時間。團結香港資金，一個前特首智董建華創立的囊團，預計未來幾年平均單位面積將縮小至430平方英尺以下，佔2019私人住房供應的45%。想像一個400平方英尺的空間相等於兩個標準車庫 — 裝進廚房、浴室和單人床床墊後也幾乎沒有擺動空間！

這些條件不但導致80後生活水平惡劣，而且在財務狀況也面臨嚴峻問題。根據Numbeo，一位香港人每月費用不少於 HKD 8000。對於一個400平方英尺的房子，平均每月租金超過 HKD10000，80後可能只剩下幾千塊錢儲蓄。隨著日用指出昂貴和生活費用增加，80後不可能積蓄任何錢投資香港房產。是時候重新考慮：「有更好的地方投資房產嗎？香港真的適合房產物業投資嗎？」

因為社會動盪與新冠病毒大流行，香港80後對於東南亞房產市場感興趣，如馬來西亞與越南的房產市場。他們覺得東南亞國家的經濟環境比較好，而且投資房地產的門檻比起其他新興市場還要低。根據Global Property Guide，香港物業每平方英尺平均價格HKD 20,570，而馬來西亞與越南物業則每平方英尺平均價格分別為HKD 2,480和HKD 1,643。在香港購買物業的價格是東南亞國家的十倍！難怪香港80後決定把目光鎖定其他地區。

香港80後必須知道香港以外還有很多房產投資機會等待他們去發現。隨著房產科技的興起，投資者現在可以更方便獲得全球房產投資機會與作出更明智的決定，將辛苦積累的金錢投資。通過我們的平台（https://denzity.io/），投資者會專注最重要的事情：探索他們想投資什麼、投資哪裡、怎麼輕鬆的投資全球海外房產。