Reuters, HONG KONGChina’s property developers and realtors are turning to virtual reality salesrooms and livestream marketing to thaw a frozen market as the COVID-19 outbreak keeps physical offices closed and potential buyers are afraid to leave their homes. Property sales by floor area in China fell 0.1 percent last year, marking the first full-year decline in five years, and analysts expect that sales might drop again this year due to the epidemic. Major realtors including Centaline (中原地產) are also doing more live forums online, hosting talks with senior executives on the property market. Trying to make homebuyers more comfortable in buying online, Centaline plans to work with property developers to build virtual salesrooms for their new developments. “The online sales platform has been around for a while, but it was mostly for advertising and chats between agents and buyers,” Centaline Shenzhen general manager Alan Cheng said.

Source: Taipei Times February 14, 2020 15:56 UTC