06:43
The first time I tried to find an apartment in Beijing, it was a nightmare. All the online listings I found were full of lies. Great-looking apartments turned out to have totally fake photos when I got a chance to see them. And the agent I got linked up with kept dragging me to terrible places – like a damp underground studio with no windows – despite the fact that they had none of the features I was looking for.
At the time, I didn’t understand why. But Joshua Miller (pictured), the CEO of Hong Kong real estate startup Okay.com, has pulled the wool from my eyes. And he says the same kind of things are happening in Hong Kong.
The problem
The Chinese real estate market is “incredibly inefficient” and “very fragmented,” says Josh. “There are approximately 400,000 agents across approximately 35,000 agencies in China, and that’s the sign of a very broken industry.”
In Hong Kong (as in mainland China) there is no MLS-style master database of available properties that is accessible to all realtors. Instead, property listings are controlled by whatever agent is representing the seller. Agents tend to keep their best listings to themselves, Josh says, so that they can be sure their buyers get the place and they get the commission.
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