Why technology is changing property buying behaviours

Recently Facebook paid US$19 Billion to buy WhatsApp. I think majority of us would know about WhatsApp or is using it daily. US$19 Billion to buy a Technology Company with only 55 staffs. This has never happened long time ago. Technology has changed the world many times over. In fact, even for the property market, technology has changed the dynamics tremendously. Today, if you were to see a RM500,000 property being sold via a A4 sized leaflets printed on both sides, most probably you will not proceed any further. However, if you are somehow still attracted and are interested, your next action would likely be to go online.
Borderless. There are more overseas buyers of Malaysian properties because they now have access to more information. These information allows them to consider a lot of things before they decide to fly here, take a tour and then buy. It has also enabled buyers from Penang to buy Iskandar and even KLites to buy Ipoh and more. This is all due to accessibility of information. Property investment is no longer confined to just buying your neighbourhood all the time.
Transparency in sharing. Investors can work together. Property Agents can co-broke. Sharing of information meant that good news, bad news are all online for all to see. Everytime I consider a property, I would always type the property name and negative comments to check it out. Of course some of the comments do not make sense but this transparency meant that properties which are not worth buying is now made known. If you are looking to sell and you kept on putting a high price, the buyers may also see that your property has been in the market for a very long time. 🙂
Anytime. Anywhere. If you happen to drive along a road, saw a new condo which you feel the design looks nice, what do you do? Whip out your smartphone and search it out! Apps from Iproperty and PropertyGuru has enabled me to know a lot more compared to last time when it was virtually impossible for you to find out more because by the time you have access to information, you may have forgotten the condo’s name! Besides that, if you happen to love a property and posted it in WhatsApp, within seconds you may have helped the developer sell a few more units!
Earth-Friendly. Guys, stop killing more trees will you. Even BNM is trying to push everyone away from using cheque books. This is also for developers who continue to build GREEN buildings, yet advertise using leaflets, magazines, newspapers and more. How about changing these to using Microsites, Apps, Blogs etc? Nothing bad, except that buyers need more information since there are no size limitation online unlike other traditional medias. So, be prepared to tell more.
Technology has changed many things. In the property world, it has changed it so much that it is safe to say that today the amount of information online has far exceeded that of traditional media. When people started to use Internet 20 years ago, those people were in their 20s. Today, the same group of people are in their 40s or older. These are the people who can afford the latest smartphones and these are also the people who can afford a better property. Now, I have to go back to researching about the next condo I hope to buy. Of course, by using my Macbook Air and my faithful Google.com
Jointly written by Gina Lim and Charles on 1 March 2014
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