In an era where technology has become a crucial driver for businesses, the development and adaptation to leverage digital platforms is something that real estate businesses should not overlook. Especially during times when the market faces various challenges and crises, operators who can effectively utilize technology will have the greatest advantage in the market. LINE recognizes the importance of creating this advantage and has organized a seminar titled “Making LINE a Home for Real Estate”, providing insights on how to utilize LINE technology. Experts from LINE Thailand updated attendees on interesting trends in the real estate market and introduced key tools that can help real estate businesses turn crises into opportunities, create competitive advantages, and confidently drive their businesses forward.

In this economic slowdown, the overall real estate business is perceived to be quite sluggish. However, a closer look at the data reveals some positive factors that can support the continued growth of this sector. This includes the ongoing growth of the luxury home segment priced at 100 million baht and above, as well as penthouses priced over 1 million baht per square meter, which continue to attract high-end customers with strong purchasing power. Additionally, in the second half of this year, the government has continuously rolled out measures to stimulate the real estate sector, particularly for mid- to lower-tier businesses, such as reducing transfer fees, mortgage fees, tax exemptions, and offering special interest rates for low-income earners.

Regarding the trends in consumer demand in Thailand, a survey by DDproperty found that over 44% of Thai consumers are planning to purchase housing within the next year, primarily due to the desire for personal space (44%), followed by investment (29%), and to increase space for parents/children (27%). An important trend that is increasingly influencing consumer purchasing decisions is the environment conducive to pet ownership, modern and universal design, and virtual connectivity through innovations. This presents an opportunity for the real estate sector to move forward, turning crises into opportunities, and focusing on creating brand advantages through technology, particularly with business tools on LINE that can meet the needs of both buyers and sellers throughout the customer engagement process.

Transforming Transactions into Engaging Services on LINE OA

Businesses should start by creating a LINE Official Account (LINE OA) to serve as the brand's home in the online world, a source of information, and a central communication hub with customers. Especially during the pre-purchase phase or when searching for a desirable home, LINE OA can act as an information source, answering customer inquiries via chat, presenting/updating interesting information through rich menu features and broadcast messages, offering online home viewings, and scheduling appointments for actual home visits. This not only provides convenience for customers but also allows brands to gather data on customer interests and behaviors to tailor content and promotions to meet the specific needs of each customer group in the future. Consequently, there has been a continuous increase in the activation of LINE OAs by real estate operators across various projects, with a growth of 20% in the past year and a 34% increase in chat message exchanges on LINE OA within the real estate sector.

Particularly, the ‘broadcast message’ feature has seen many businesses, including real estate, enhancing their broadcast capabilities to send targeted messages to individual customers or groups. By utilizing data to segment customers for targeted broadcasts, the effectiveness of broadcasts in terms of open rates and click-through rates (CTR) has increased by 55% compared to the same period last year.

Building Brand Awareness through LINE Ads

In addition to using LINE OA as a communication hub, advertising on LINE, whether through Reservation Ads or bidding formats via LINE Ads, is also crucial for creating awareness and stimulating interest among target consumers. With diverse ad placements and the ability to identify target audiences based on demographics, interests, etc., brands can now define their primary target audience on LINE Ads according to specific interests in deeper segments, such as real estate. This is highly beneficial for businesses in advertising and communicating the unique features of various projects to attract the right target audience, resulting in a 20% growth in advertising expenditure on LINE Ads from this sector in the first half of the year compared to the same period last year.

Strategically Planning Campaigns to Capture Quality Leads

The real estate sector is another industry that emphasizes the importance of generating and capturing quality leads. Therefore, businesses need to have a solid plan, starting before launching products/projects by creating awareness through various ad placements on LINE that can reach a large audience, such as the Smart Channel in the chat list to attract as many interested target groups as possible. Typically, businesses in this sector often advertise on LINE Ads with the objective of ‘visiting the website’ to gather customer behavior data for re-targeting marketing efforts, presenting additional information based on the interests of each customer group, or leading to form submissions to leave leads for sales staff to provide further information or schedule appointments, ultimately leading to successful sales closures.

Secure Transaction Notifications with LINE Official Notification (LON)

After communicating and providing information to close sales, real estate businesses can also utilize the LINE Official Notification or LON tool to send important notifications to customers during the sales process, such as confirming appointments, payment confirmations, and notifying the status of document receipt, as well as during post-sale services when customers move in. Brands can use LON to notify about common area fees, parcel service tasks, and booking services within the project. LON is a notification system from LINE that allows brands to send direct messages to individual customers through LINE OA using the phone number database they have, building trust in an era of misinformation, ensuring customers that these are important notifications from the authentic brand, easily readable and worry-free!

Adapting by utilizing LINE technology can be a crucial tool in creating competitive advantages for real estate businesses, whether it’s generating brand awareness, effective communication, building customer trust, or fostering long-term relationships with customers after sales. All these factors will help drive the real estate business to succeed, overcome crises, and grow steadily through technology.

Real estate businesses and operators interested in utilizing various platforms or solutions on LINE can fill out a form to contact the LINE Thailand corporate business consulting team at https://lineforbusiness.com/th/contact or contact the agency managing your brand immediately, or choose to contact LINE's partner agencies at https://lineforbusiness.com/th/partner.