• About Us
  • Advertise with Us
  • Contact Us
  • Offers
  • Events
  • Newsletter
  • Podcasts
  • Digital Magazine
  • Home
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Self Development
  • Growth
  • Finance
  • Marketing
  • Technology
  • Sustainability
  • About Us
  • Advertise with Us
  • Contact Us
  • Offers
  • Events
  • Newsletter
  • Podcasts
  • Digital Magazine
NZBusiness Magazine

Type and hit Enter to search

Linkedin Facebook Instagram Youtube
  • Home
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Self Development
  • Growth
  • Finance
  • Marketing
  • Technology
  • Sustainability
NZBusiness Magazine
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Self Development
  • Growth
  • Finance
  • Marketing
  • Technology
  • Sustainability
NewsTechnology

Proptech startup hits 25pc market share

An easy interface for property searchers such as real estate agents, created by Auckland property data company Relab, has captured a quarter of New Zealand’s real estate agent market. Last […]

Glenn Baker
Glenn Baker
May 15, 2023 2 Mins Read
1.9K

An easy interface for property searchers such as real estate agents, created by Auckland property data company Relab, has captured a quarter of New Zealand’s real estate agent market.

Last year, real estate agents accessing the centrally accessible property data through Relab’s platform, the first of its kind in New Zealand, increased sales by 30 percent.

CEO Knight Hou (pictured), who starting working on Relab with co-founder and CFO Leon Hong in 2016, created the platform from scratch to “enable, empower and inspire” real estate agents as they analyse and assess the potential of any property opportunity quickly.

“There was no holistic way of capturing all that information into one place,” Hou said. “There was no unique way to identify every property. Now there is.

“We do the hard job of getting all the data together – it is public data visualised in a very neat way. We go wide and go deep and provide real estate agents the bulk of their information in a very easy-to-consume way,” Hou said. “That’s our point of difference.”

So far 25 percent of the country’s real estate agree. Previously, collating the data themselves was a mundane time-consuming job. Despite primarily servicing the market in just Auckland, Christchurch, and Queenstown, Relab has increased its nationwide market share by 250 percent in 12 months. The company secured $1M investment from investors including Icehouse Ventures in 2021, and is eyeing global expansion with sights set on Australia as the next port of call.

But Relab did not happen without long hours and hard work. Hong and Hou spent three years creating their startup, working weekends and evenings to build up their technical capability.

After migrating to New Zealand from China, Hou spent 15 years working for some of New Zealand’s largest corporates such as Air New Zealand, but wished he’d started Relab (the first two letters of the startup name signify “real estate”) well before 2016.

“My biggest regret is that I didn’t leave the corporate world sooner,” says Hou.

Relab also managed to increase its customer base on the back of the Covid-19 pandemic, but were Hou to start Relab now, he’d make a few changes, in a startup he calls his ‘passion’.

“Sometimes you must keep going without seeing fruition – the passion and purpose is what drives you.

“My advice to myself six years ago would be before I even coded the first line of code I’d be talking to people first, as you never know who your end customer might be.”

 

Visit: https://www.relab.co.nz

Share Article

Glenn Baker
Follow Me Written By

Glenn Baker

Glenn is a professional writer/editor with 50-plus years’ experience across radio, television and magazine publishing.

Other Articles

Jo Tozer 2022
Previous

Businesses reveal Budget hopes as costs rise

Emma and Jill 2 Holski
Next

A visionary collaboration

Next
Emma and Jill 2 Holski
May 16, 2023

A visionary collaboration

Previous
May 9, 2023

Businesses reveal Budget hopes as costs rise

Jo Tozer 2022

Subscribe to our newsletter

NZBusiness Digital Issue – September 2025

READ MORE

The Latest

AI comes to the back office as NetSuite Next brings enterprise intelligence within reach

October 8, 2025

Construction sector leads sustainability charge despite industry pressures

October 8, 2025

Tune into the brand: How Radio BurgerFuel amplifies a strong identity

October 1, 2025

Smart interest-free business lending

October 1, 2025

Turning data into answers for every business

October 1, 2025

The funding source that flies under the radar

September 25, 2025

Most Popular

Understanding AI
Economy, AI, and exports dominate 2025 business outlook
Cecilia Robinson’s mission to revolutionise healthcare
Confessions of a serial investor
NZBusiness Digital Issue – June 2025

Related Posts

AI comes to the back office as NetSuite Next brings enterprise intelligence within reach

October 8, 2025

Turning data into answers for every business

October 1, 2025
ASB report on improving productivity

Investor confidence tumbles amid global uncertainty

September 22, 2025

Wallace Cotton celebrates 20 years of comfort and style

September 18, 2025
NZBusiness Magazine

New Zealand’s leading source for business news, training guides and opinion from small businesses to multi-national corporations.

© Pure 360 Limited.
All Rights Reserved.

Quick Links

  • Advertise with us
  • Magazine issues
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Privacy policy
  • Sitemap

Categories

  • News
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Growth
  • Finance
  • Education & Development
  • Marketing
  • Technology
  • Sustainability

Follow Us

LinkedIn
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube
  • Home
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Self Development
  • Growth
  • Finance
  • Marketing
  • Technology
  • Sustainability