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Agent of the Month: Ancha Property

When Bangkok-based Ancha Property decided to enter the fray to capitalise on the China market last year, Managing Director Anchalika Wongwaiwisarn knew she needed a tailored strategy for Chinese buyers.

Her first order of business was to find a partner in China that could help her tap into the right audience of buyers. After conducting intensive research for their ideal property platform, Ancha Property found its match with Juwai.com.

About Ancha Property

Established in early 2015, Ancha Property has offices in both Bangkok and Shanghai. Originally focused on digital online Chinese marketing, Anchalika noticed significant Chinese interest in international real estate and realised the potential of Thai properties.

At the time, Thailand was in its early stages of popularity.

“Thailand property investment is very new for Chinese. It is not as popular as the US or Australia. We have to educate a lot of our clients. We invest time and money in bringing in new investors, people who had no interest in investing there before.”

By the end of 2015, Juwai Data showed Chinese buyer interest in Thai properties surged 41% from 2014-2015. Now, Thailand ranks as the 5th most enquired on country on Juwai.com in Q1 2016, and boasts a 90% quarterly increase in enquiries.

Success Factors:

#1 Ensure the right product:

Focused solely on the Chinese buyer segment in Thailand, Ancha Property specialises in properties they feel are most attractive to Chinese buyers – those offering valuable return on investments based on client budget, and based on their buying objectives. Most of these are properties from Thailand’s bigger cities, including Bangkok, Pattaya, Phuket, Chiang Mai, and Koh Samui.

“Many of our Chinese clients seek Thai properties for investment and retirement purposes thanks to its high returns and yields. In fact, most of them prefer investments offering guaranteed returns,” said Anchalika.

This rings true with Juwai Data as well. Investment ranks on par with lifestyle as a key motivation for Chinese buyers enquiring about Thai properties on Juwai.com – 48% for investment, and 50% for lifestyle. Both go hand in hand, particularly when considered in the context for retirement.

According to Anchalika, many developers in Thailand are rushing to cater to this demand as well. Developers of luxury resort cities offer Chinese buyers the opportunity to rent out their property as holiday residences, allowing the developer to offer guaranteed rental yields of around 6% - 8%.

Other property types currently favoured by Chinese buyers are luxury residential condominiums in Bangkok. While these do not offer a guaranteed rental yield, Bangkok condominiums are easier to sell comparatively, and fetch a higher capital gain.

#2 Trust and international buyer needs:

Another area in which Ancha Property attributes its success to is their focus on service and trust. Understanding that many Chinese buyers have a lot of questions and research to conduct on a new country before they’re prepared to invest, Ancha Property’s team is always prepared to help assist with such questions.

“What sets us apart from other agencies focused on the Thai property market is our ability to field all sorts of questions about Thailand. From enquiries about international schools to immigration and retirement in Thailand, we are able to answer them and this leads to them [Chinese buyers] having trust and reliability in our company,” explained Anchalika.

Trust and reliability is very important when it comes to working with Chinese buyers, as is offering quality properties that match customer requirements.

Another way they gain this trust is through the service they provide to buyers visiting in country. While their team in China may first connect with their buyers in China first, their team in Bangkok then goes to length to help support clients in their visits to Thailand.

With all the above, Ancha Property has been able to make good headway with the Chinese market. The company’s following has now even garnered them customer referrals from satisfied clients.

Working with Juwai

“It’s been great working with Juwai,” said Anchalika, before sharing that they have received great support and customer service from the Juwai team who responds within 24 hours.

“We’ve had a lot of sales from Juwai leads, on a pretty regular basis each week. And while our conversions are not as high yet, overall, we’re still very satisfied with Juwai,” she continued.

Ancha Property also recently partnered with Juwai.com to hold a seminar in Beijing in April 2016 to showcase four properties to a select group of Chinese consumers from the region. The event was well-received by Chinese attendees, who showed a great deal of interest in either learning more or putting down deposits for properties being presented.

“We’re very happy with Juwai, and we’d definitely recommend Juwai to others,” smiles Anchalika. Her final piece of advice to impart for other agents and brokers wanting to delve into the China market:

Be patient – Chinese buyers need a lot of guidance from start to finish and a lot of education – and offer them special services, such as arranging a trip for them to assigning someone to take care of them and arrange personal tours and meals.