Hemnet's new commerial listing service is launched

Hemnet's new offering 'Hemnet Kommersiella', a listing service for commercial properties on sale (or space to lease), was launched yesterday. See press release. (Google Translated version)

Background

It's actually more correct to say 're-launched' since the site has existed for a number of years (see screenshot below). Originally created by Svensk FastighetsData, a company that in late 2007 was acquired by Vitec (both Swedish IT firms focusing, to a large extent, on the Swedish real estate market).

 The older version of kommersiella.se 

However, in 2009 the domain was 'transferred' to Hemnet. Read more at an earlier post. The new version of the site  is now running on the same platform as the originally Hemnet (residential listings). Very much the same functionality and also linking between them. Actually, just one way.

I guess just to keep the traffic down in the start. Otherwise, it will miss a lot of opportunities.

The business benefits

The aim with the service is clearly stated in the press release 

"There is a clear need for a platform for commercial real estate in Hemnet auspices, which has been lacking. Today, if a company is looking for a property or space to rent it has to use a number of platforms to get an overview of the overall market. The ambition of Hemnet's investment in commercial properties and real estate - www.kommersiella.se - is to eventually offer a platform that gives speculators a fast, precise and reliable overview.

The commercial real estate brokers have long called for a pure business for commercial properties. When we rebuilt hemnet.se we took the opportunity and created a separate site for commercial premises and buildings, and we are delighted to now be able to launch, says Carl-Henrik Borg, president of Hemnet."

A press release that got a quick reply from Objektvision's CEO Marianne Olseryd via Twitter. 

Objektvision is the largest (so far) listing service for commercial properties on sale and space to lease. In competition with services like Lokalnytt och Lokalguiden. 

My thoughts

First of all, I'm delighted to see an initiative to bring better efficiency (using IT) to the process of selling a commercial property.

Secondly, I believe that Hemnet has a great opportunity to provide more traffic to those listings with an integration with their residential listing service. There are many high end buyers that interested in finding a (smaller) commercial property to invest in.

However, I was surprised to see that 'Hemnet Kommersiella' also will include space to lease. My thought is that in the longer run it is better to separate those two different markets. Especially if one is aiming for the 'real' commercial properties in a range above 100 million SEK (15 million US dollars).

Another, interesting fact is that, as far as I'm concerned, only registered commercial property brokers are allowed to post their listings on the site. With an extremely high market share in the residential field that is enough to be the biggest site. However, on the commercial side that number is lower, not to mention letting out space for lease, which in Sweden is done largely directly by the property owner.

Furthermore, the listings are imported from the two largest 'brokerage systems (CRM)' used commonly among residential brokers, but not that often among commercial brokers. To be successful there needs to be alternatives. On the other hand, the question is if the commercial brokers are eager to make all their larger listings 'public'. I doubt it.

To sum up, an interesting move with a lot of potential, but also some great challenges.

Kungsleden uses social media to create a better office product

Kungsleden, a listed property company in Sweden, is displaying an innovative approach to interact with clients using social media.

 

An initiative that includes a dedicated site (www.lokalamojligheter.se), two Twitter accounts (@kungsleden and @mojligheter), Flickr account and a YouTube channel. Here is an article about the initiative at Resumé. 

 

The new site

Focuses on how the office environment could be better.

   

 

One feature on the site is that one can add suggestions on how to make a better office product and then let people vote on those. (Very much like this famous example by Starbucks or Salesforce.) The highest ranked suggestion after 5 days is a central switch to turn off all lightnings in the office. 

 

My thoughts...

I'm delighted to see a property company taking on new possibilities and give them a serious try. All of them will not work, but a least you have tried. 

 

When it comes to property owners communicating to end users at an office it has always showed to be tricky since very few no which are the owners of 'their' office space'. On the other hand, there are millions of office workers that for sure have opinions about their physical work environment (another question if they find their way to this site). 

 

Finally, I wish that Kungsleden gives this initiative a real try (And not just something a PR firm has convinced them to do.) Unfortunately, their start of Twitter use could have been better. 3 tweets at 2 accounts since the start 3 months ago isn't much of communication...

 

CEO at a large construction company starts blogging

I'm impressed.
The CEO (Per-Ingemar Persson) at Veidekke Sweden, one of Swedens largest construction companies, has started to blog at http://per-ingemar.se/. 

The first entry has the 'Why starting to blog?' (translated to english, using Google Translate). A highly relevant question if one start doing something that few (none?) others in the same position are doing.

Per-Ingemar says:

"... It is therefore particularly important to increase communication with both employees and suppliers in the sector and the customers we have been privileged to work with. Both by getting bring our thoughts and ideas but also to get feedback on how we can improve on to get satisfied customers and dedicated employees, and how we can become more attractive to our suppliers as partners. I think the blog is such an instrument that can serve these purposes."

nnn

   

Click to read more ...

Augmented Reality Real Estate Valuations

Joel Burslem who writes the blog Future or Real Estate Marketing has a great story about a French residential brokerage firm that has developed a valuation tool using augmented reality technology.

See the video here.
Looks great!

More on Augmented Reality

For further reading on the topic see an earlier post.

Fasticon launches a new HR web-service at Business Arena Real Estate

It's not to common that a new IT system is launched at a Swedish real estate fair, but it happened at Business Arena Real Estate (a event with 1500 delegates in Stockholm on the 16-17th September). 

 

The company 

Fasticon, a leading management consulting firm for real estate companies on the Swedish market, has over the years increased their services in the area of Human Resources. For example, providing services for recruiting and replacement.

The solution

Their newest offering is 'FastiKompetens', a web-based system for competence management.

  It has been developed in close partnership with StockholmsHem (a large municipality owned residential property company) over the last year.

The aim of the solution is to make it more visible, for both the employee and the management, what skills are present within the company, what is needed, the plan for training and a list of preferred courses.

Each employee has its own 'page' with the CV and competence plan.

The aim has been to create a system that both is easy to start using and specific for the the property industry. The technical development has been done by the IT consulting firm Sajtkonsulterna.

Next step

The system will go live at the first client on the 1st of October and the plan is to add new clients in the beginning of 2010.

Additional reading

Further reading, there is an article in Magasinet FastighetsSverige (2009, Nr 6), the press release and the site of Fasticon.