Real Estate Marketplace for the Philippines - Tokkatok
Discover how Codica helped launch a real estate classifieds platform for rentals and property sales in the Philippines, enabling tenants, and property owners and real estate agents to connect on a clean, modern, and searchable website.
Domain:Real Estate
Location:The Philippines
Timeline:November 2024 - March 2025
Services:Product discovery services,UX/UI design services,Online marketplace development services,Quality assurance services,DevOps service
Team:1 Frontend Developer, 1 Backend Developer, 1 UI/UX Designer, 1 Tech Lead, 1 DevOps Engineer, 1 QA Engineer, 1 Project Manager, 3 Tech Advisors
Core Technologies:React.js, Next.js, TypeScript, Node.js, NestJS, Prisma ORM, PostgreSQL, Redis, AWS S3, Elasticsearch, Stripe, Mailchimp Transactional, React Admin, Argon2, JWT authentication, Express Rate Limit
“I started this website with just an idea. Codica helped me turn it into a reality. Even though it was just a whim with very little structure, Alex, the project manager, and Dmitry, the technical lead, guided me through the process and helped shape a scattered concept into something cohesive, something that can be a marketable and ultimately successful business. Special thanks also go to Alona, the UI/UX designer, whose incredible design work brought the whole product to life and really made it stand out.
The Codica team is top-notch. They work amazingly well not only with tech-savvy professionals. Thank you all again, you’re simply outstanding.”
CEO
Real Estate Marketplace, Philippines
Background
The idea for the project came when our client temporarily moved from the U.S. to the Philippines with his family and struggled to find a suitable rental property.Most listings were scattered across Facebook, not designed for real estate, and often outdated or hard to verify. This frustrating experience revealed a clear gap in the market, the lack of a reliable, dedicated platform for finding and listing rentals in the Philippines.
To solve this, the client envisioned a user-friendly real estate website where people could easily browse up-to-date property listings, whether for short-term or long-term stays, and property owners or real-estate agents could post and manage their listings with ease.As a first-time tech founder, he turned to Codica to bring this idea to life, from early validation to full product delivery.
Project challenges
- Since the platform was intended for the Philippine market, integrating local third-party services, such as GCash for payments and Facebook Business tools for promotion, posed technical and regulatory challenges due to cross-regional service limitations.
- As the client had no background in the real estate industry, Codica had to offer continuous support throughout the development and post-development support.
- The platform needed to be intuitive for users unfamiliar with technology, making simplicity and mobile responsiveness essential from day one.
- Maintaining alignment across a fully remote international team required clear documentation and proactive communication, especially during the discovery and implementation phases.
Value delivered
- Codica conducted a thorough discovery phase, helping the client validate the product idea, define the target audience, and prioritize key features early in the development process, as well as features and enhancements for the next phases after launch.
- Designed and delivered an MVP with all essential listing creation, management, and moderation features, on time and within budget.
- Built a robust and secure backend architecture, designed to be flexible and scalable to support future feature expansion and business growth.
- Provided a fully responsive user interface, ensuring consistent usability and accessibility across all device types, including smartphones and tablets.
- Supported the client through technical and legal complexities, especially those related to international services and compliance between U.S. and Philippine market requirements.
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User management system
We implemented a secure and flexible user system with email verification, social login options and multi-factor authentication via email. The JWT-based session management supports refresh token rotation, while password recovery is handled through secure, time-limited tokens. Users can also create detailed profiles with step-by-step data entry, upload profile photos (stored via AWS S3), and benefit from automatic image optimization.
Listing management system
A multi-step wizard guides property owners and real estate agents through listing creation, with dynamic fields based on category, drag-and-drop photo upload with batch support, and map-based location selection with address validation.Users can save drafts and publish when ready. Listings go through an admin moderation workflow, which includes a review queue, approval/rejection options, and the paid ability to mark listings as “featured” for premium visibility.
Search and discovery system
To enhance user experience, we built an Elasticsearch-powered search engine with faceted filters, price ranges, category-specific attributes, and location-based proximity search. Users can sort results and view recommended similar listings on the listing details page. Featured properties are highlighted for better discovery.
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Mobile responsiveness and optimization
The platform is fully mobile-friendly, featuring responsive layouts that adapt seamlessly to different screen sizes and device types. Image loading and overall performance were carefully optimized to accommodate users on slower or limited networks, ensuring smooth access and usability across diverse regions of the Philippines.
Infrastructure and DevOps
The platform is hosted on AWS, utilizing S3 for secure and efficient media storage, Textract for automated document parsing, and Redis for high-speed caching to enhance performance. We implemented presigned URLs to enable safe and direct file uploads from the client side. The backend was architected with scalability and reliability in mind, ensuring it can easily support future growth and new functionality.
“From the start, we focused on building a simple, intuitive, and accessible platform, especially for users with limited tech experience. Working with a first-time founder, our goal was to simplify complex tech decisions and guide the client through each phase, ensuring every feature was practical for real-world use and the final product stayed lean, scalable, and user-friendly.”
Dmytro
Tech Lead & React/Node.js expert at Codica
Technologies
React JS
Next.js
TypeScript
Nest JS
Node.js
Prisma ORM
PostgreSQL
ElasticSearch
AWS
Redis
Argon2
ESLint Security Rules
Integrations
Facebook OAuth
JWT
React Admin
Mailchimp Transactional
Stripe
Let’s turn your idea into a successful product!
What’s next?
- 1. Our Sales Manager Taya will be in touch with you within 1 business day.
- 2. We will sign the NDA if required, and start the project discussion.
- 3. Our custom software development experts will analyze your requirements and suggest the best ways to bring your idea to life.
