Zillow, Inc., a leading real estate information marketplace, has announced it entered into an exclusive partnership with Beijing Yisheng Leju Information Services Co. (“Leju”), an affiliate of E-House (China) Holdings Limited, a leading real estate services company in China, to power Leju’s U.S. home shopping experience.
According to the company, beginning in early summer 2014, Leju visitors who search for U.S. properties will be brought to a Zillow®-Leju co-branded website whereby they will have access to Zillow’s robust home search experience, rich data on homes, millions of for-sale listings, and unique pre-market inventory. The co-branded site will be translated into Chinese and operated by Zillow.
This partnership presents a tremendous opportunity for real estate professionals who display their listings on Zillow to reach the second-largest population of foreign buyers of U.S. homes. Chinese buyers spent more than $11 billion on U.S. properties, and on average, spent $425,000 on a home – with 69 percent of purchases reported as all-cash purchases.
“We’re excited to announce this exclusive partnership with Leju,” said Errol Samuelson, Zillow Chief Industry Development Officer. “Brokers and agents with listings on Zillow are now able to reach Chinese home shoppers who are ready to invest in the U.S. market, with no additional cost or effort. This is another example of how Zillow is continually providing new ways for real estate professionals to market and grow their businesses.”
“We’re thrilled to provide Leju visitors with Zillow’s unparalleled real estate search experience,” said Geoffrey Yinyu He, Leju’s CEO. “Many of our more than 60 million users are interested in U.S. properties and now they will not only have access to information on U.S. homes that they can’t find anywhere else, but they’ll also have the ability to quickly connect with a local real estate expert who can help them through the home buying process.”
Financial terms of Zillow’s first international partnership were not disclosed. In the United States, Zillow is the exclusive provider of for-sale and for-rent listings for Yahoo!® Homes, AOL® Real Estate and HGTV’s FrontDoor®.
Source: Chinese buyers accounted for 18% of the $68.2 billion that foreigners spent on homes during the 12 months ending March 31, 2013 – NAR 2013 Profile of International Home Buyers
Source: NAR 2013 Profile of International Home Buyers
