Various Melbourne-based real estate agents have signed up for a new translation service, which transforms their listings into audio-visual presentations that can be heard in various Asian languages. This move comes alongside growing demand for Australian real estate from Chinese and other Asian buyers, reported Property Observer.
The automated service takes images and editorial provided by the agent, and generates a virtual video presentation with a voiceover in a selection of eight languages.Languages available are Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Italian, Greek, Korean, Turkish and English.Approximately 45 offices belonging to the Barry Plant and Stockdale & Leggo franchise networks have signed up for the service, which is provided by US-based technology firm Digital Motorworks (DMI).Other agencies to sign up for the new service included Noel Jones, LJ Hooker, PRDnationwide and Greg Hocking.The technology is already used in the US by approximately 25,000 car dealers.
Over one in 10 residents in the Wheelers Hill area of Melbourne were born in China, according to the 2011 Census. This makes Chinese the third highest demographic group after English-born residents and Australians. Wheelers Hill also has a high proportion of Greek and Italian residents.The project in Australia will be headed by business development manager Peter Daicos. New languages to be added to the service in the future include Vietnamese and Sudanese, according to Daicos.“It’s about enhancement and communication,” said Daicos.“Agents do not have to do anything as we use the existing data feed and images that are used to display their properties statically,” he added.
The technology costs between AU$200 (US$206) and AU$250 (US$258) per month, plus GST (Goods and Service Tax), depending on how many listings are to be translated. The service is available for properties for sale and those listed for rent.If there are 100 properties to be translated it works out to around AU$2.50 (US$2.58) per week and there are no start-up costs for the agents.
The technology works with properties listed on real estate portals like realestate.com.au, domain.com.au and other sites.It also comes with full reporting to help agents understand consumer trends and behaviours based on the number and average time each video is played. Properties can also be syndicated to YouTube.
