Xishuangbanna agents replaced dwindling footfall with livestream property sales

In 2021, COVID quarantines made Xishuangbanna agents' sales dwindle. Zheng Hailong and Eddie Zhang began showing properties on Douyin, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu because audiences were stuck at home and agents needed leads.

Livestreaming changed the sales funnel: agents walked through apartments, answered questions in comments, moved viewers to WeChat, learned their budgets, and arranged airport pickups. The format sold both the apartment and the tropical destination to out-of-town retirement and vacation-home buyers.

The result was a local exception during China's property slump. January–October 2023 sales reached 12.583 billion yuan, up 69.4% year over year, and 80% came from outside Yunnan. Li Jianxiong said 80% of his clients came from Douyin; Rainforest Time, a project with more than 8,000 single-family homes, was nearly sold out after most customers found it through livestreams.

Douyin and Kuaishou then formalized the channel: Douyin launched Xingfuli in 2023, aiming to expand to 50 cities and sign more than 4,000 livestream agents by the end of 2024; Kuaishou created Ideal Homes to boost property sales and verify agents. A scholar warned that the model depended on Xishuangbanna's scenery and might not generalize.

January–October 2023 sales reached 12.583 billion yuan, up 69.4% year over year; 80% came from outside Yunnan.

Quarantine removed in-person appointments and local footfall.

Livestreaming put property discovery in front of remote buyers when listing sites could not create desire for the destination.

Comment-to-WeChat follow-up turned audience attention into tailored consultation.

The tropical setting gave agents visual content that could sell the town as well as the house.

When a local market depends on visitors, turn the product into a daily media show so remote demand can replace lost footfall.

Xishuangbanna became a livestream-property pioneer even as China's broader housing market fell. Douyin and Kuaishou built formal real-estate service arms, but experts said the area's scenic appeal made it an exception, so the channel would not automatically transfer to ordinary cities.