REW.ca Launches Local Chinese Real Estate Web Portal, zh.rew.ca

It’s no secret that Vancouver’s real estate market is a hot industry and with the significant Asian population we’ve seen increasing, developers and realtors alike cater their services to this demographic. Following suit, REW has launched Canada’s first local Chinese real estate web portal (zh.rew.ca).

Designed to better serve Metro Vancouver’s growing Chinese community, Zh.rew.ca offers buyers and sellers:

• MLS® listings (covering Hope to Pemberton including the Sunshine coast)
• new development listings
• an agent directory
• local real estate news
• school and amenity data
• mortgage rate information
• neighbourhood profiles

The new Chinese version is similar to REW.ca in its navigation, look and features, but it operates under the direction of Chinese editor Hong Sui. Focusing on the uniqueness of the local Chinese community, Ms. Sui will develop original news articles in Chinese covering a variety of local realty topics and will post real estate-focused articles sourced from Chinese media. Translated versions of stories found on the English REW.ca site will also be featured on the Chinese edition, to give visitors a complete lower mainland experience.

Beyond unique editorial content, zh.rew.ca also tightly integrates property listings with community and neighbourhood profile information to help home-buyers find nearby schools, shopping, amenities and transit routes.

The site offers the same convenient tools as its counterpart, REW.ca. Home buyers can search from anywhere (including on tablets and mobile devices), share search results via social media, save searches and get alerts when matching property listings come on the market.

“We’ve set the bar quite high when it comes to the real estate services and information we provide to the Chinese community – we offer unique content and services not found anywhere else,” says Sui. “Zh.rew.ca is presented in simplified Chinese, which allows us to reach the biggest audience of local and international Chinese home-buyers, and it’s also really convenient for Chinese newcomers. I’m excited for Chinese agents as well, as they now have the ability to market themselves in their own language to Chinese consumers.”

This is the second Chinese-language marketing vehicle from the same company. Last fall, REW.ca launched a weekly Chinese newspaper edition delivered to select homes in Richmond and available at over 300 retail locations.