Juwai.com, the No. 1 Chinese international property portal, and Auction.com, the leading online real estate marketplace, have signed a partnership that will bring American commercial real estate auctions to investors from China.
The agreement will see US real estate listings from Auction.com advertised on Juwai.com in Chinese, where they will be immediately accessible to Juwai.com’s 2.6 million monthly Chinese-speaking users – in mainland China and around the world.
Juwai.com will also use its team of 15 journalists to develop content that educates Chinese consumers on the real estate auction process.
Initially, the partnership will focus on commercial properties - multi-family units, hotels, retail and office buildings - listed for sale on Auction.com. But given the high level of interest in US residential properties from Chinese buyers, residential homes will likely be added to the mix as well.
Juwai.com has signed similar international partnerships with LuxuryPortfolio.com, LuxuryHomes.com and The Real Estate Channel, and Chinese partnerships with China’s number one finance website, jrj.com (NASDAQ: JRJC), and most popular luxury shopping portal, VIP.com.
"Over $48 billion in foreign capital was invested in US commercial real estate in 2014, and China was second only to Canada in the amount of CRE investment," said Auction.com CEO and Co-Founder Jeffrey Frieden. "Our strategy has always been to leverage the global reach of the Internet to deliver the largest number of prospective buyers for our sellers. So we're excited to partner with Juwai.com, which has the largest audience of Chinese international property buyers, and will help us effectively target Chinese-speaking investors in mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore and even in the US."
Simon Henry, co-CEO of Juwai.com, said, “Auction.com will help us give Chinese buyers more of what they are looking for, exclusive commercial listings that are accessible to them online – in China and in their own language. Chinese buyers don’t want to be disadvantaged because of their language or physical distance from the US. We help educate cross-border buyers by providing access and information on global real estate buying practices. Auction.com is a great addition to our global partners who understand the value of international buyers."
“Real estate auctions are new to most Chinese, and we believe they will embrace this new opportunity when they learn more about it.”
