HouGarden launches ‘Ask HouGarden’ – a bilingual AI property search engine – across New Zealand & Australia. The engine skips legacy filters and uses natural language and voice input in English and Chinese to pinpoint hyper-specific local property needs instantly.
The launch introduces generative AI-driven conversational search for homebuyers and renters in the region, shifting away from traditional filter and dropdown menus.
“This launch is part of HouGarden’s mission to make property data more transparent, accessible and inclusive. This changes how people query properties compared to legacy platforms.
“Users no longer need to rely on standard filters, dropdown boxes, or long property descriptions to locate critical details of what they really care about – such as walking distance to a local school or shops, a spacious backyard, plenty of natural light, or do-up potential. Instead, they can just describe it and Ask HouGarden will locate it.
“With our bilingual voice input function, combined with our data and AI capability, HouGarden becomes a smart property search assistant that actually listens – and finds what you want.”
Steven Si, Head of Strategy & Public Relations, HouGarden
The search engine is now available to users across New Zealand and Australia via HouGarden’s website and app. Following its initial deployment, the platform has recorded significant market engagement, indicating strong interest in the conversational search architecture from both buyers and renters.
The search engine covers both buying and renting scenarios. The initial version 1.0 release focuses on four primary technical capabilities.
Natural language and voice intent recognition, which supports English and Chinese voice input to identify buyers’ needs through conversations. It has a multi-criteria data integration, incorporating school catchments, public transport proximity, title types, council zoning rules, and government valuations into its core database.
The engine has micro-level indexing which retrieves micro-level street addresses, historical school ratings, open home schedules, and property descriptions. Finally, it has contextual heuristic guidance which suggests relevant follow-up questions based on context to help users identify matching properties.
“Ask HouGarden is designed to assist homebuyers in making more confident, data-driven, decisions. Buyers’ confidence will result in higher conversion efficiency for agency partners.
“We will continue to release new features based on our ongoing research into user behaviour.
“The goal is to allow users to use it as a personal assistant for property searching, scheduling, and researching, and enquiring, entirely through voice commands.”
Steven Si, Head of Strategy & Public Relations, HouGarden
