This week's product roundup has some interesting news from two Russian businesses...
Domclick, the de facto state-owned Russian portal owned by national bank Sber, has launched a catalog of services from trusted contractors for country houses.
The services are being trialled in Moscow, St Petersberg and Kazan.
Users wishing to build a house buy a prefabricated house can arrange for the installation of utility lines, fencing, house and landscaping design, and repairs services.
Buyers can order prefabricated kits that can be assembled within a few days by vetted builders under a five-year warranty—and all these properties will qualify with discounted mortgage programs under the Build A House program.
Russia's biggest real estate developer Samolet launched a home flipping offering, powered by AI.
People looking to flip houses can gauge investment potential of refurbished apartments and find liquid assets.
Samolet's release said:
About 200 thousand people have tried themselves as flippers in Russia: these are both professionals and those who invested in one or two projects. There are fewer active flippers: about 10 thousand people regularly make deals in this segment. Development of the platform began in early 2024.
Efim Weisberg, Director of Flipping and Repair Development at Samolet Plus, said:
"Flipping is a complex process where the speed of decision-making is important. We studied the market, communicated with the professional community, tested hypotheses and launched pilot projects to create a tool that will really help market participants. The online platform helps reduce routine and increase the efficiency of transactions. Now the real estate market as a whole is going through difficult times, and this digital tool will help find truly liquid properties. At the same time, our platform is largely designed for the future: when conditions improve, the key rate begins to decrease, our platform will become an important entry point into this segment."
Samolet has also implemented an AI assistant to handle incoming calls for its Samolet Plus apartment solutions service.
According to a press release from Samolet, the product was piloted in January 2025, and was scaled up to 550 offices of the Samolet Plus partner network in February.
Interestingly, Samolet also revealed that the implementation of the AI-driven system will reduce the company's expenses by approximately 30 million rubles (USD 342,700) in 2025.
The press release went on to say:
The Samolet Plus contact center processes over 1 million requests per year, including over 500 thousand incoming calls. When a call comes into the contact center, the operator determines what ad the client is interested in and then connects them with the agent responsible for a specific apartment, house or other real estate property. The main problem in the work was the lengthy clarification of the details of the real estate property with each call. This could lead to the loss of clients and reduced the efficiency of the operators. The first stage of optimization was the integration of SIP technology with one of the real estate classifieds. As a result, operators began to automatically see what ad the client was calling about. This reduced the call processing time from 3 minutes to 1 minute 25 seconds.
The leading Iraqi real estate marketplace Homele has launched the country's first so-called super app.
In an announcement on LinkedIn, CEO Soran Hamawandi said Homele's app includes several key integrations and tools including: instant contract generation; smart payment tracking; automated tenant screening; real-time utility management; AI-powered market insights; and secure visitor clearances.
Super apps are essentially end-to-end real estate ecosystems for multiple stakeholders, from brokers and agents to home buyers and sellers.
Homele's website says that the business offers adjacent services including cleaning, kitchen renovations, smart home automation, curtains, legal, and mortgage.
Dubizzle (part of the Dubizzle Group) has launched a new mortgage calculator on its real estate vertical.
The new tool includes features such as automated monthly payment breakdowns, the ability to track repayment progress, and a breakdown of interest and principal payments.
The calculator can be applied to listings throughout all seven Emirates in the UAE across residential, commercial, off-plan and development projects.
The AI-powered challenger portal Jitty has integrated the ability to add freeform tags to any home search in the UK.
Users can now search with the specificity of precise filters, but with the flexibility of their imagination via its natural language search tool.
Jitty said:
Jitty started by using AI to analyse property photos, unlocking way more data than any other portal. That meant you could search with natural language for features, amenities, or even commute times. Then last month, we launched Inspiration, which let you search for anything - dreamy cabins, insane wine cellars, maximalist interiors.
Now, we’ve combined both. Precise filters + wildcard inspiration = limitless search possibilities.