With the power of Microsoft Azure, House730 could deploy the NLP model in just 2 to 3 days without involving a software engineer, bringing significant administrative and labor cost savings.
As the first property search engine to capitalize upon Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service’s natural language processing in Hong Kong, House730 helps more people house-hunt for their perfect property.
Hong Kong citizens have long relied on real estate agents for trawling possible apartments to handing over keys that unlock dream homes. The pandemic threw a wrench into those practices. During lockdowns, landlords and tenants were reluctant to facilitate tours or visit properties, respectively. Online property search engines flourished as people were limited to searches on smart phones. After restrictions were eased, online property search engines are increasingly the first step Hong Kong citizens take when seeking suitable homes.
The city’s property market is highly fragmented with many agents restricted to listings within their community. Even larger scale property agencies are unable to cover all of Hong Kong’s numerous listings and many different types of properties. To service Hong Kong’s unique needs, House730 was established in 2019 as an online platform that aspires to capture every listing in the city with a comprehensive one-stop easy-to-navigate arena.
Online property searches go mainstream
As Hong Kong citizens fully embrace property search habits online, they may be searching for ideal homes by trawling countless traditional agencies’ websites or via other platforms in order to obtain a wider range of choice in a disjointed market. Between 2021 and 2023, House730 enjoyed a 30 percent uptick in users who started their property search online first, and is now serving an average of more than 1.5 million monthly active users. Rentals are the most popular searches, though House730 offers properties for purchase or rent ranging from vehicular parking spots to vacant lots, with some augmented by virtual reality tours.
Mike Wong, Chief Technology Officer with House730, is always on the lookout for innovative digital ways to streamline product offerings. “In the past, property listings were scattered,” he noted. “We want to address the gap between user expectations and quantifiable clicks that connect searchers with representing agents through technology in order for their property search process to be more efficient. Ultimately, we want to align demand with supply to ensure that no enquiry is left behind.”
Wong observed that many House730 users employ natural language patterns when they fill in search boxes. A typical Hong Konger speaks quickly. If texting, sentences are often abbreviated into a combination of English and Chinese words filled with acronyms and emojis. Many House730 users know where they want to live or how much they wish to spend on a property. If a street address, building name or dollar amount is entered, suitable property pages will appear that meet the specified criteria. Yet when colloquial language is entered, the system is stumped. For example, a user seeking rental availability for a one-bedroom unit within Kwong Ming Court public housing estate in Tseung Kwan O may type: “TKO 廣明苑 1 bed $3K”. The combination of acronyms, different languages, jargon and slang will not yield any result. The frustrated user will then immediately leave the site. Missed searches equate to lost potential transactions.
Catering to five percent of complicated queries via natural language processing
Internal quantitative analysis indicated that 90 percent of House730 user entries produce appropriate search results. Of the remaining 10 percent, approximately five percent cannot be processed as users are not typing in their queries in the ways expected by the portal. “Approximately five percent of these users may type in gibberish or seek a forum to vent their personal views on the city’s housing market,” said Wong. “Their entries show that they don’t intend to seriously search for properties, so they’re not our focus. The other five percent though are serious about their property search. However, they are not entering queries using proper addresses or keywords. They may have entered a mix of the abovementioned requirements. We previously couldn’t cater to those five percent of enquiries. This was the dilemma we faced.”
Mike emphasized that the House730 platform is simple, “We want to help people find the right property based on the search criteria entered.” To address the five percent of legitimate property searches that previously yielded no result, Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service’s GPT-3.5-Turbo-16K was installed to tackle complicated entries. House730 launched the platform in late March 2024 as the first business to consumer (B2C) search engine application utilizing natural language processing (NLP) within Hong Kong’s real estate market. Prior to its launch, the platform was tested over a 24-hour period on a Sunday when the search engine experiences robust traffic. With a median of 60,000 unique searches per day, the test yielded 94 percent of results for all enquiries, a four percent increase from the site’s previous 90 percent.
Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service’s biggest selling point is that it allows House730 to easily map its own unique format for complete customization. A user types in a string of words. Microsoft Azure’s NLP capacity will output the application programming interface (API) requirement. House730’s back-of-house technology can then extract the right matches based on received parameters.
Bonus points that Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service scores are that it features longer token limits that yield specific results. “The output results are not free-form,” added Wong. “When we give it something to process, it can output the results we want. For our business, we need Microsoft Azure to handle three-part outputs: separate requests into ones that we can generate results for display; engage the API; and weed out what we cannot address for further analysis. Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service can distinguish between these three parts in a very stable, consistent way.”
Prior to using Microsoft Azure, it would take one engineer a month to develop a NLP prototype. But now, we can deploy the model in just two to three days without involving any software engineer. The administrative and labor costs are reduced: a huge benefit. All the heavy lifting is done by Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service. Mike Wong: Chief Technology Officer, House730 Limited
“Prior to using Microsoft Azure, it would take one engineer a month to develop a NLP prototype. But now, we can deploy the model in just two to three days without involving any software engineer. The administrative and labor costs are reduced: a huge benefit. All the heavy lifting is done by Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service.”
With Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service up and running, House730 plans to grow its car park rental segment to address the imbalance between limited supply and great demand. Parking spot landlords typically do not employ online search engines as their vehicle, preferring to use agents that they know and trust. “We see parking spots as an area that we want to develop,” Wong said.
Another area of growth is for House730 to increase its support to licensed agents. Currently, there are 40,000 practicing real estate agents in Hong Kong. Approximately 50 percent are unaffiliated with any large or branded agency and therefore lack enterprise-grade systems support and resources to launch or operate their online sales channels. “In addition to helping users find their dream homes, we plan to expand our services to provide internal property search system for independent real estate agents or agencies,” Wong shared. “This way, they can also benefit from Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and other support services such as advertisement posts on our website. It is all to help increase their competitive edge.”
In addition to helping users find their dream homes, we plan to expand our services to provide internal property search system for independent real estate agents or agencies. This way, they can also benefit from our AI capabilities through Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and other support services such as advertisement posts on our website. It is all to help increase their competitive edge. Mike Wong: Chief Technology Officer, House730 Limited
