Sunshine Group launched the house-selling app in January.. — Photo cafef.vn

HÀ NỘI — More and more realty firms are using digital platforms to sell their products, driven by the Government's encouragement to develop local digital technology firms amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The application of technology in the real estate sector is forecast to be a prominent trend in 2020 and in the future,” said Phạm Kim Xuân, a representative from realty research firm Jones Lang Lasalle Vietnam (JLL).

Xuân said restricted travel during the pandemic had made it difficult for traditional site inspections and direct meetings, however, demand for land still increased.

To support the demand, more and more online platforms and realty apps have popped up, offering virtual tours and online webinars so customers can experience products from a distance.

As an active Facebook user, Nguyễn Thu Hoàn said she had received lots of information, pictures, videos, ratings and reviews and reports about the real estate project she was interested in after clicking on the Facebook page of the project.

According to technology experts, tech trends have helped real estate brokers approach customers, using big data to help brokers analyse the habits, preferences, predict the wishes of customers. From there, the target audience can be selected to have suitable approaches to make advertising more effective.

Phạm Ngọc Thiên Thanh, manager of market research and development consulting for CBRE Vietnam, said: “The Industry 4.0 is a global trend that helps the real estate market and other industries be developed in a more comprehensive and efficient manner.”

Among the first realty firms using technology to sell houses, Sunshine Group launched the Sunshine app in January.

Lê Hoàng Nam, head of the Sunshine Home’s IT infrastructure, told Việt Nam News: “The app helps maximise information transparency about the company's real estate projects, allowing buyers and sellers to easily learn, access products and trade conveniently on their smartphone.”

Amid the pandemic, Nam said the apps allowed customers to easily receive 24/7 online consultation from the sales team without meeting.

Nam added in the peak period, more than 1,000 people installed Sunshine app per day, making realty transactions via app increase dramatically, adding: “At the end of March and early April 2020, despite the social distancing, the group still recorded nearly 500 successful transactions.”

The app helped the group operate stably even in a period of market stagnation due to the pandemic, he said.

With the VinID app, Vingroup also attracted a number of customers to transact real estate and make online payments without any physical contact.

Other realty firms such as LinkHouse Company or Khải Hoàn Land also developed house selling apps while realty brokerage sites such as youhomes.vn and batdongsan.com.vn developed special apps to attract buyers.

Nguyễn Văn Đính, vice chairman of the Viet Nam Association of Realtors, said technology was changing very fast, forcing firms to be ready to adapt.

“Marketing teams of realty firms need to be creative and constantly update trends to have the best strategies to serve the customers to win the digital race," he said. — VNS