China’s real estate firms will use a peculiar marketing tactic to attract buyers

Before 2020, selling apartments in China followed a familiar script. Developers built large 售楼处 (sales offices) with marble floors and scale models. They hung banners across highways. They rented expo halls at property fairs and flew buyers in from other cities. The sales team wore matching uniforms and greeted visitors at the door.

Then COVID-19 shut it all down. Sales offices closed. Expos were cancelled. Buyers stayed home. Developers had two choices: stop selling, or find a new way.

Most chose Douyin and WeChat. What followed was one of the fastest shifts in property marketing anywhere in the world.

How Chinese Developers Moved to Live Streaming

The first live streams were rough. A salesperson walking through an empty apartment, phone in hand, no script. But Chinese buyers tuned in, first by the thousands, then far more. At the peak of 2020-2021, the largest developer live streams on Douyin drew huge audiences watching an apartment complex being sold in real time.

The tactics borrowed directly from e-commerce, specifically lipstick sales. Chinese live commerce had already figured out that countdowns, flash prices, and gift bundles drove purchases. Developers applied the same formula to apartments. A host would announce: “For the next 30 minutes, apartment type B at 2.8 million. After that, back to 3.1 million.” Viewers sent comments. The host read them out. Questions answered live. Bookings taken on the spot.

Other tactics that spread quickly: virtual walkthroughs of show apartments, celebrity KOL tours where a popular account visited the property and filmed everything, and “gift vouchers” toward a purchase for anyone who booked a physical visit via the live stream. The gifts were real. They drove visits. The visits turned into sales.

For more on how platforms like Douyin and WeChat became standard tools, see our full guide: Why Real Estate Developers Love Douyin So Much.

Why It Worked: The Logic Behind the Conversion

A buyer who watches a 3-hour live stream of an apartment complex knows the product. They have seen the lobby, the pool, the surrounding streets. They have heard the salesperson answer hundreds of questions from other viewers. They know the price, the payment terms, the handover date. By the time they visit in person, the sale is mostly done.

This is fundamentally different from a print ad or a portal listing. A portal listing shows photos. A live stream shows reality, including the things developers would prefer buyers not notice until after they have signed. That transparency built trust faster than any previous marketing channel had.

Viewing time is a key metric. Long sessions mean genuine interest, and genuine interest means qualified leads.

What the Market Looks Like in 2025-2026

The gimmicks faded. The core tools stayed. By 2025, running a bi-weekly Douyin live stream is standard practice for any developer with a serious sales operation. WeChat private groups for buyers, short-form videos showing yields and floor plans, and paid Douyin ads targeting users who have recently searched property content are all part of normal operations.

The same professionals who built these tactics for domestic China projects now apply them to international properties. A developer selling apartments in Bangkok, Dubai, or Tokyo uses the same Douyin playbook: live stream from the sales office, show the nearby amenities, bring in a Chinese speaker to do Q&A, add a countdown offer for viewing trip bookings.

The channel is proven. The question is no longer whether to use it. The question is how well you use it compared to competitors doing the same thing. For a complete breakdown of WeChat’s role in the sales process, see our guide: WeChat for Real Estate: Full Explanation.

Douyin Is Changing Real Estate Marketing in China

The scale of Douyin’s real estate content is hard to overstate, from short home tours to live-streamed sales and yield breakdowns.

Cost is the other key factor. In our campaigns, Douyin leads cost less than WeChat Moments leads and far less than property fair contacts, and they arrive pre-qualified because the viewer has already spent time watching the product.

For overseas developers, Douyin is the entry point. Chinese buyers do not discover international property on Google. They find it on Douyin, in Douyin comment sections, or through accounts followed by other Chinese buyers in their target country. If your property is not on Douyin, most Chinese buyers will never know it exists.

Who Is the Chinese Real Estate Buyer in 2026?

Chinese buyers active in international real estate in 2026 fall into three main profiles.

The Yield Hunter (收益猎人) is 35-50 years old and focused on net yield above 5%. This buyer targets Thailand, UAE, and Japan, where rental income relative to purchase price is strong. They want numbers, not lifestyle images.

The Family Insurer (家庭保险官) is 40-60 years old and buying primarily for school access and a residency visa. UK, Japan, and Canada attract this profile. The property is a secondary goal. The primary goal is securing options for the family.

The New Wealth Entrepreneur (新财富企业家) is 30-45 years old, typically from tech or e-commerce, and buying to hold USD-denominated assets outside China. This buyer moves fast, pays cash, and cares about exit liquidity as much as entry price.

For the full breakdown of each profile with investment levels and destination data, see our guide: Chinese Investors in Real Estate 2026: Where the Money Is Going.

Chinese Data Sources

安居客 Anjuke (anjuke.com) is one of China’s largest property portals. Its listings show how Chinese developers present new projects online, including video and live content.

贝壳研究院 Beike Research (bj.ke.com) is the research arm of Beike, China’s largest real estate transaction platform. It publishes research on the Chinese housing market and on digital sales tools such as VR tours and online viewing.

How CTA Can Help

CTA works with developers, brokers, and real estate funds to reach Chinese buyers through Douyin campaigns, WeChat official accounts, and organized viewing trips from China. Pedro Wang, founder of Chinese Tourists Agency, oversees our real estate Douyin practice, with campaigns for projects across Bangkok, Dubai, Tokyo, and London.

If you are a developer or broker trying to reach Chinese buyers through the right channels, visit our advertising agency in China page or explore our services to see what a campaign looks like in practice.