Hello. I am updating the blog again today, and I would like to write about something I have been thinking about recently in our real estate business.
Our company has been putting considerable effort into introducing Japanese real estate to foreign clients. One of the things I consider particularly important is reducing the information gap between foreign buyers and people who already have access to the Japanese property market.
We are working to provide information about Japanese real estate in multiple languages. I want more people overseas to understand the Japanese property market and to know that foreigners can also acquire real estate in Japan. For us, improving access to this information has become an important part of our work.
At the same time, we regularly receive property information from people in the real estate industry, along with requests such as, “Please list this property” or “Please help us sell it.” Occasionally, we are asked to sell a property completely off-market.
In practice, however, selling a property without making the information public at all can be quite difficult.
From an owner’s perspective, the idea of an “off-market property” may sound exclusive or special. From the sales side, the situation looks somewhat different. We receive many pieces of property information, and if a property is never listed on a website and remains only in private documents, it can gradually disappear from our immediate attention.
This has nothing to do with whether the property itself is good or bad. It is simply a practical issue of sales promotion.
When a property is listed on our website, we see it repeatedly while carrying out our daily work. That creates opportunities to remember it. We may look at the listing and think, “That’s right, we have this property,” or, “Perhaps this would be suitable for the client I am speaking with now.”
That repeated visibility matters in actual sales activity.
For this reason, when we are asked to cooperate in selling a property that cannot be made public in any form, it can be difficult for us to handle effectively.
This does not mean that every property must be widely distributed through real estate information networks or other channels. I understand that owners may have reasons for limiting public exposure. However, if we are asked to participate in a cooperative sale, it is much easier for us to work on the property if we are at least permitted to publish it on our own website.
Publishing a property on our website gives our clients, including foreign buyers, an opportunity to discover it. Just as importantly, it keeps the property visible to us. When the right client appears, we are more likely to remember the property immediately and make the introduction.
I believe property information creates opportunities when people can actually see it. If keeping a property completely private ends up reducing its chances of being sold, allowing at least the cooperating real estate company to publish it on its own website seems to me a practical approach.
In particular, when owners contact us directly about cooperative sales and permit us to publish their properties on our website, we are very happy to receive the information. This applies not only to properties for sale but also to rental properties.
If we want more foreign clients to understand Japanese real estate, the first step is to make useful property information accessible to them. We intend to continue providing information in multiple languages and connecting Japanese real estate with clients overseas.
Property owners and real estate professionals who would like us to cooperate in selling or introducing their properties are welcome to send us information, particularly when publication on our website is possible. We look forward to working with you.