Product Roundup: Homely, Bayut Saudi Arabia, Kaidee, Jitty

Here is the best of this week's product and service upgrades. We'll start with a partnership in Australia...

Homely partners with Real Flow to provide 'critical' financial services to agents and vendors

Australian challenger portal Homely has entered a strategic partnership with Real Flow Finance, a non-bank lender specialising in home loans and other financial assistance to buyers and sellers of real estate.

Homely says the partnership will bring specialised services to the platform such as Commission Flow, Campaign Flow and Equity Flow.

Homely says the partnership will "enhance the transactional capabilities of real estate professionals and provide critical financial services to agents and property vendors."

David Webb, head of industry, revenue and partnerships at Homely, said:

"Real Flow’s equity release offering will play a huge part in helping people that have sold, but not yet settled, get early access to their equity so they are in a position to buy their next home

"In today’s market, buyers need to be on the ball, and this kind of flexibility will put people in a better position to make the right purchasing decision."

Bayut Saudi Arabia Launches 'Search 2.0' to Enhance Property Search Experience

Bayut Saudi Arabia has introduced a new search tool named "Search 2.0". The update is essentially a travel time search tool similar to those seen on around 3% of portals globally allowing users to find properties based on driving time to given locations.

To promote the new tool, Bayut Saudi Arabia has launched a digital advertising campaign on billboards in Riyadh's main streets. The platform has also inaugurated its new country headquarters in Riyadh, as parent company Dubizzle Group looks to gain market leadership in the kingdom.

Kaidee Collaborates with SCB TechX to Enhance User Security with eKYC Technology

Thailand-based horizontal classifieds specialist Kaidee has partnered with digital technology expert SCB TechX to enhance security measures and combat scams through electronic Know Your Customer (eKYC) technology.

The new security system utilizes Liveness and OCR technology to improve the credibility of online transactions. The process involves users providing personal information and identity verification documents, which are then converted into digital information to verify identities and prevent fraud.

This collaboration aims to reduce counterfeit accounts by over 50% and handle tens of thousands of eKYC verifications monthly. The technology enables instant verification, making the process more efficient and secure.

Kaidee is owned by Singapore-based Carro having been sold by Dubizzle Group in 2023. The brand competes with PropertyGuru-owned DDproperty in the real estate vertical.

Jitty adds two features to its Collections product

UK challenger portal Jitty has added the option to save homes to Collections and invite others to collaborative Collections.

Announcing the feature launch on LinkedIn, Jitty co-founder and CEO Graham Paterson said:

"Today Jitty moves further away from being a standard property portal.

"Portals want you to book a viewing to buy a home, but most people aren't there yet. Maybe you're making a shortlist with your partner. Maybe you want to keep track of price reductions on homes in your area.

"'Book a viewing' and 'Call agent' just doesn't don't cut it. So now on Jitty you can save homes to any collection you want to create. And you can invite your friends and family too, so you can build a collection together."