Chinese overseas property portals are little like buses.  There are none for ages and then two come along all at once.

Following the launch of LuckyWu.com (Lucky House) earlier this month, Juwai.com (Homes Overseas) officially launches today.

The project is the brain child of former China Country Manger of REA Group (owners of realeaste.com.au, the market leading portal in Australia) Andrew Taylor and his business partner Simon Harry.

The pair have spent the last 18 months working on a system that automatically translates English listings into different Chinese dialects.  Juwai.com launches with over 1 million listings, mainly through their partners in Australia and North America, and claims to be the number one overseas property portal in China based on property volume.

Agents and developers are offering the ability to upload properties automatically via XML for $100 for 20 listings and $250 for 100 listings per month.  Manual translation of descriptions is offered for 0.10 cents per word.

The overseas property market in China is a fledging one and Taylor believes the key to success is education and communication on both sides.

“The biggest challenge is communication” Taylor told Global edge.  “The majority of Chinese buyers do not speak English so it was important for us to set up a call centre to manage the enquiries for our clients.  When a call comes we make sure make sure we have people on hand who speak the right dialect and then the enquiry is translated and an email sent in English to the client”.

Taylor and his team can advice on recruiting part-time staff who speak the right dialects to handle the leads but they can also put clients in touch with agents they trust.

“We’ve been working on the ground here for more than five years and we know agents we trust.  Their demands can be high, as they usually expect a sign on bonus and up to 70% of the commission” he says although he is adamant that his business is media only and does not get involved in master agency work.

The biggest challenge for Taylor is education.  The Chinese market is quite a bit behind the West and many of the company’s team are dedicated to creating educational content like buying guides and videos which he hopes will be shared through social media.

“We have fifteen staff, eight in Shanghai and seven in Hong Kong.  The key tasks are managing the call centre and creating excellent content.  Simon and I worked for one of the biggest online media agencies in China so our marketing focus is around SEO, online content and social media”.