New Huttons Congress 2021: Industry Firsts Initiatives

From left to right: Mr Loke Tuck Choy, Mr Mark Yip, Ms Peggy Ngiam, Ms Indranee Rajah (Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Second Minister for Finance and National Development), Mr Chris Marriott

Singapore: Today at the New Huttons Annual Congress, Huttons Asia signs three MOUs to support their associates to provide better service to their clients. Two new IT enhancements were officially launched at the same time. Huttons bucked the trend of companies downsizing during Covid-19 with an expansion of 15% of its space and re-designing it for the future of work.

Mr Mark Yip, Chief Executive Officer of Huttons Asia said, “During our Annual Convention in February 2021, Minister Desmond Lee launched the SMEs Go Digital Programme for the real estate industry. Redoc.co by Real Estate Doc is the first software to be approved under the programme, providing end-to-end documentation of real estate deals for estate agencies. They are supported by Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore, Enterprise Singapore and Council for Estate Agencies and are now digital signing partners on Sign with Singpass. This is the “Gold Standard” for documentation management.”

Mr Ivan Lim, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Real Estate Doc said, “We are excited to be given the opportunity to support Huttons in digitising their documents. This is a strong testament to the quality and standard of our system. We are confident that our smart document management software will enable Huttons to digitalise sales document flow and close more deals faster.”

“Our current IT system has served us well over the past few years and it is time for an upgrade. We are taking this opportunity to redesign it and integrate fully with Real Estate Doc’s solutions. The whole customer journey of buying/selling/leasing from documentation to invoicing to payment will be seamless,” Mr Yip adds.

In a first in the real estate agency industry, Huttons will be working with Singapore Industrial and Services Employees’ Union (SISEU) to form a Company Training Committee to identify jobs that are likely to be disrupted due to industry transformation and roles that will be created in new business growth areas. The Company Training Committee will also map out new skills and competencies for the Company’s real estate salespersons, to enhance professionalism, capabilities and be Industry 4.0 ready.

“Covid-19 has accelerated the adoption of technology and jobs have to be redesigned so that employees and real estate salespersons remain relevant. We want our employees and real estate salespersons to be better equipped and trained to embrace challenges ahead,” said Mr Yip.

SISEU President Mr Muhammad Shariffudin said “As part of the Company Training Committee initiative, a training roadmap will be created, and together with SISEU and NTUC LearningHub, relevant training will be provided to enable employees and real estate salespersons to learn more digital skills, become more efficient and serve their clients better. Through this CTC, we aim to outreach to and upskill Huttons’ over 3,000 agents and staff. We will also be embarking on an Operation & Technology Roadmap (OTR) to identify technologies and training gaps that could help Huttons transform and enhance their competitiveness. “

Huttons has also signed a non-exclusive MOU with GOfix to offer their salespersons concierge services which value adds to their service offering to clients.

“GOfix is a trusted service brand under EM Services which is one of Singapore’s largest estate and property management companies. GOfix is one of only 2 home referral services recommended by HDB on their minor repair website. GOfix’s services are available islandwide and across different residential segments. Our salespersons can be assured of quality service when they engage GOfix,” commented Mr Yip.

“We are pleased to offer a one-stop, on demand property services and products for Huttons real estate salespersons. GOfix is here to solve the issue of unreliable service and lack of trust between contractors and customers,” EM Services CEO Mr Tony Khoo further adds.

The signing of MOUs and launch of new initiatives were witnessed by Ms Indranee Rajah (Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Second Minister for Finance and National Development), who graced Huttons Annual Congress 2021 as Guest-of-Honour.

Ms Indranee said, “We need to focus also on industry transformation so that we can emerge stronger from these challenging times together.

In this regard, we are heartened by the resilience of our real estate agencies and agents. The real estate industry has continued to digitalise and innovate. Our next step is to make sure individual agents can keep up with the pace of transformation – human capital needs to match digital capital. CEA introduced the SkillsFuture Study Award for the Real Estate Agency Industry in 2018 to support property agents in taking courses to upskill.

More broadly, we are looking to enhance the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) ecosystem to equip agents with the necessary knowledge and skillsets to be professional, future-ready agents.”

During the Huttons Annual Congress, Huttons officially launched a new app for their salespersons to close deals on the go. Called Huttons Pro+, this app features an all-new interface for improved UX. Commonly used functions such as Ultimate Project Search (analysis reports), Wealth Creation Pro+ (property calculators), Projects EDM (marketing materials) and Projects Microsites (leads generation) are now integrated with over 130 projects information by regions so that this becomes the one app for Huttons salespersons.

Mr Yip says: “To aid salespersons in growing their teams, the joining process is now fully digital with an all-new recruitment platform. Salespersons can join Huttons anywhere, anytime plus achieve an even more successful real estate career with a welcome kit, marketing kit, training kit, digital kit and personal mentorship from senior leaders. These are specially curated packages tailored to real estate salespersons who are at different stages in their careers. Each package is worth more than $4,000 and will help more salespersons achieve a breakthrough in their personal sales.”

After the successful launch of the Millennial during Huttons Convention 2021, Huttons will be embarking on another journey to engage Generation Z consumers. Huttons is one of the first real estate agencies in Singapore on TikTok, creating interesting and educational short-form videos on upcoming and existing projects.

“In addition, we are in midst of renovation to embrace a new co-working environment which will promote a creative and productive workspace while building a stronger community. Huttons is expanding our office space when others are shrinking or remaining status quo. This shows our ambition to grow and capture a bigger market share”, says Mr Yip.

“In the short nine months I have been with Huttons, many good initiatives have been implemented with the support of my corporate management team, leaders and salespersons. We have signed a strategic cooperation with FOZL to serve the Chinese market, launched the Millionaire Associate Program for new salespersons, formed Millennial, revamped our training, launched Huttons Property Watch & Best Friends for better consumer engagement. The ongoing innovations will place Huttons in the forefront of the industry. There will be more exciting plans ahead for our business growth”, Mr Yip concludes.