Singapore, 6th July 2009.
PropertyGuru, (www.propertyguru.com.sg), Singapore's largest real estate website, with some 1 million visitors per month and a 20% growth rate, has unveiled a home and lifestyle online magazine that aims to be the ultimate one-stop portal for those who are on the lookout for not just a good property buy but for the A to Z in home-related information ranging from finance, legal, eco-friendly renovation, do-it-yourself (DIY) interior decoration, furnishing, movers, storage, maid services, pest control and even feng shui (or geomancy), consultation!
PropertyGuru’s Home & Lifestyle magazine (http://www.propertyguru.com.sg/home-lifestyle) is the first and only such online magazine to be offered by a property portal in Singapore. Since coming on ‘live’ on a ‘beta trial’ basis in May, Home & Lifestyle has already garnered over 40,000 hits.
“We see a steady stream of visitors to Home & Lifestyle because we not only provide well-packaged information that home owners need but we also ensure that our content is updated regularly, supplemented by special monthly features on topics of interest. There’s something for just about every home owner or buyer,” said Mr Steve Melhuish, Co-founder and Director, PropertyGuru
The line-up of special monthly features for the rest of 2009 are: remodelling special/pre-holiday season preparation (August); Hari Raya special (September); Diwali special (October); out-of-school/home DIY kids projects (November) and Christmas special/home-for-the-holidays (December).
Home & Lifestyle boasts four main categories that offer a wide range of interesting and informative topics that can be found in the feature articles, reviews, buying guides and interactive, ‘how to’ videos, in each category as follows:
Renovate & Furnish: Provides home improvement tips – on how to revamp kitchens, living rooms, the study, bedrooms and bathrooms; maximize space in smaller rooms; choosing the right furnishings; home safety and security; and décor ideas from painting to lightings. Many of the tips come in ‘how-to’ videos which will be especially handy for new home-owners like newly-weds, who are out to design, decorate and organise their very special brand new homes.
Move & Store: Provides ‘step-by-step’ guides and checklists on moving, relocation and storage, as well as legal advice related to moving or temporary accommodation.
Lifestyle & Home Services: Provides a comprehensive listing of services from repairs and maintenance (plumbing, electrical, carpentry) to cleaners; from maids to pest control; geomancy for the home and office; car purchase/hire; travel and holiday plans; health and relaxation; and the location of schools in the neighbourhood and admissions.
Finance & Legal: Contains in-depth articles on budgeting and financial planning for home purchases; financial advice on insurance, health and education matters; and taxation matters. This section has been sponsored by Professional Investment Advisory Services Pte Ltd, a local financial planning firm.
A unique feature of Home & Lifestyle is the Floor Planner Tool. Users can try their hand at designing and planning their home interiors right on their computers. This simple yet powerful, user-friendly tool, provides a palette of furniture and architectural details to suit different types of home and office layouts. With a click of the mouse, furniture can be moved around a room to get the right ‘fit’ before the layout is saved or printed for use by a designer or renovation contractor.
“With PropertyGuru already generating about 100,000 leads per month for our advertisers, our new kid on the block, Home & Lifestyle, offers even more exciting possibilities. More than 60 leading companies have already come on board to showcase their home and lifestyle-related products and services,” added Steve Melhuish.
One such major advertiser is ICI Dulux. “We are pleased to work with PropertyGuru to launch our upcoming ICI Dulux ‘Inside’ campaign, which showcases a unique collection of the best Dulux Preferred Designers selected for unique Singaporeans. ‘Inside’ captures designs that address small spaces, lifestyle needs and hobbies commonly found in today’s Singapore’s context and highlights real life Singaporean’s lifestyles, tastes and hobbies brought alive through their homes” stated Ms Claire Goh, Marketing Manager, AkzoNobel Paints Singapore.
“As more Singaporeans turn to the Internet for their shopping and buying needs, www.propertyguru.com.sg, as Singapore’s leading house-hunting website, is well-positioned to become the ‘one-stop-shop’ for all property-related information and buying needs!” added Steve Melhuish.
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For more information, please contact:
Gary (+65 6238 5971) or email gary@propertyguru.com.sg
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 8,000 housing agents, and home-related firms.
The site is used by some 1 million consumers who view 15 million pages and generate over 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, Marketing Magazine, Media, Expat Living & Radio 93.8 fm Live) as well as 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 Asia Pacific” in 2009 as well as picking 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. Recent advertisers include Standard Chartered, ICI-Dulux, HSBC, IKEA, OCBC, Professional Investment Advisory Services, Far East Organization, Kheng Leong, Mulpha, and Knight Frank.
For more information, please visit www.PropertyGuru.com.sg.