Singapore, 17th July 2009:
The results of the CNBC International Property Awards 2009 have been revealed and www.PropertyGuru.com.sg has won the "Best Property Portal Asia Pacific” award, beating entrants from 25 countries. The website also picked up the “Best Property Portal Singapore” for the second year in a row – but this time picking up 5 stars, the highest award for the category. The announcements were made at an awards ceremony held at Marina Mandarin hotel in Singapore on 16th July.
“We are delighted and proud to win these prestigious awards and to be recognized again by our industry peers" said Mr Steve Melhuish, Co-Founder and Director of www.PropertyGuru.com.sg
The fact that www.PropertyGuru.com.sg has won one of these coveted awards is proof that Singapore can compete and triumph within the highly competitive Asia Pacific property and digital media arenas.
The event is part of the International Property Awards, an annual competition dedicated to finding the best real estate professionals across the globe. Hundreds of residential property-related firms from over 56 countries in Asia, Europe and Americas were evaluated by a senior panel of real estate and Internet experts chaired by Eric Pickles, chairman of the UK's Conservative Party.
This year's judges included Ben Wood, industry head property markets of Google UK; Peter Bolton King, group chief executive of the National Federation of Property Professionals; Imtiaz Farookhi, chief executive of the National House Building Council; Christopher Hall, president elect of FIABCI; Wilhelm Harnish, Master Builders of Australia (MBA); Thijis Stoffer, International Consortium of Real Estate Agents Association (ICREA); Helen Shield, editor-in-chief of International Homes magazine and Gillian Farr, head of design of Laura Ashley Home.
-ENDS-
About PropertyGuru:
www.PropertyGuru.com.sg is Singapore’s leading property and home site and the brainchild of PropertyGuru International (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., a local firm established in 2006.
www.PropertyGuru.com.sg provides real time access to multi-media rich content covering property and home-related products, services, news, advice, guides, tools and largest online property database in Singapore. It works closely with prominent real estate developers in Singapore and overseas, over 7,500 housing agents, and home-related firms.
The site is used by some 920,000 consumers who view 14 million pages and generate 100,000 leads for advertisers every month (sources: Alexa.com, Hitwise and www.PropertyGuru.com.sg). PropertyGuru's user base has consistently grown by 20% per month since its launch. These users are ‘mass affluent’ and comprise 53% earning over $100k, 13% over $250k pa; 35% expatriates; 85% live in Singapore, 15% overseas (foreigners and Singapore expats); 32% own 2 or more properties (source: survey conducted by Aktiv Digital with 800 respondents).
www.PropertyGuru.com.sg is committed to innovation and regularly launches new services, features and content to improve usability and customer service. Today, consumers do not just get access to the largest online property database but also receive automatic property alerts, monthly newsletters, free expert mortgage advice, real estate market news, home and lifestyle feature articles, pricing trends, home and personal finance products, new property launch updates, property videos, virtual tours, condo directories, HDB guides and online consumer property question and answer services.
To support its growth, PropertyGuru invests heavily in marketing. This includes outdoor campaigns (buses, taxis, MRT stations and flyer campaigns), print advertising and PR (Financial Times, The Edge, Today, Straits Times & The Sunday Times, Marketing Magazine, Media and Expat Living) as well as on the radio (93.8 Live) and online. It also has exclusive partnerships with eBay and Yellow Pages, powering the property section of these websites and widening the reach for PropertyGuru’s advertisers.
The site won the CNBC International Property Awards for “best property portal Singapore” in 2008 and 2009. Recent advertisers include Standard Chartered, ICI-Dulux, HSBC, IKEA, OCBC, GE Money, Professional Investment Advisory Services, Far East Organization, Lian Beng Group, Mulpha, CBRE and Knight Frank.
About CNBC International Property Awards:
The annual International Property Awards recognizes the industry’s best residential and commercial property professionals from around the globe. Now in its 15th year, the awards have seen steady growth with entries from across the globe with firms representing 56 different countries. The awards are now established as the biggest in the world and an International Property Award is a world-renowned mark of excellence.
The awards are split into regions covering the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe & Africa, Arabia and UK. Participants enter at their relevant national level and are judged by a highly experienced team of professionals who cover the whole range of property disciplines. Companies selected as winners are then invited to attend a glittering awards dinner for each region and have the right to use the prestigious logo in their marketing. The highest-scoring winners from each region are automatically entered into the overall International Awards, which ultimately determine the world's finest property companies.
For more details, please contact:
Tessa Oxley - call (+44) 1245 358877 or mail ‘tessa [at] propertyawards.net’
Or visit www.propertyawards.net