SINGAPORE, 20 October 2014 - Asia's leading property site PropertyGuru, has recently hit a record high of 1 million listings as well as crossed the 30,000 mark for the number of real estate agent subscribers advertising on its websites. This milestone can be attributed to a strategic combination of breakthrough innovation and commitment towards improving the business of agents.
PropertyGuru places a strong emphasis on the innovation and improvement of its products, introducing many new tools and features to enhance the quality of listings. These enhancements include the recently launched Transactor tool, as well as a new listing quality system and a floor plan database in Singapore. As a result, PropertyGuru has been able to improve the both the listing volume and user experience for visitors to its sites.
With a deep understanding of the differences in each of its target markets' property landscape, PropertyGuru also constantly strives to help better the business of agents amid the market slowdown in developed countries like Singapore and build visibility across new, untapped territories in the developing countries of Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.
The Company has gone beyond simply selling advertisements- holding a number of events throughout the year, including exclusive networking events, seminars and roundtable sessions. These events give the agents an opportunity to gain business insights as well as pointers by participating in active dialogues alongside key industry players, peers and colleagues regarding trends in the property market. The events take place in all the markets PropertyGuru operates in, attracting a large number of attendees for each of these events.
Agent subscriber growth
was the strongest in Thailand, with the number of subscriber agents doubling at
the end of H1 2014 as compared to the year before. Indonesia and Malaysia both
experienced a 50% increase in the number of agent subscriptions within the same
period - a testament of the growing popularity of the brand becoming the
preferred advertising media for property agents in the region.
"Our strategy towards our agents has always been driven by the aim of empowering them to become more influential in the property search process by enabling them to widen their exposure, becoming more informed, and improving their efficiency," said Steve Melhuish, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of PropertyGuru. "These growth figures are a testament of the trust and confidence the agents as well as property seekers have in us, and we will continue to build on this relationship and fulfil each and every of our stakeholders' needs."
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Christopher Sim Hill+Knowlton Strategies 6390 3349 |
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About PropertyGuru Group
PropertyGuru Group is Asia's leading online property portal group used by more than 11 million property buyers, viewing over 90 million property pages and generating over 350,000 enquiries for real estate developer and agent advertisers - every month - across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. The Group has developed and launched 15 mobile applications in four countries and three languages. At the end of 2013, the Group recorded 1,357,946 downloaded mobile apps, resulting in a slew of three MOBEX awards sweep. Headquartered in Singapore, PropertyGuru was founded in 2006 by two entrepreneurs with a vision to simplify the property search process and help buyers, sellers and investors make better property decisions faster. Taking advantage of Asia's growing affluence, property demand and online explosion, the company received its first VC investment funding in 2008 and secured approximately $60m investment in 2012 from Deutsche Telekom, South East Asia's largest digital investment to date. PropertyGuru was also the first to integrate its website with social media, first to launch Singapore's only dedicated property newspaper - read by more than 100,000 readers island-wide every month - and it has also developed a property events platform, with approximately 30 shows held annually across four countries, addressing 30,000 potential property buyers on the ground.
ABOUT STEVE MELHUISHCo-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Steve is an award-winning entrepreneur. In the last two decades, Steve built profitable companies throughout Asia and Europe. In 2006 along with his partner Jani Rautiainen, founded PropertyGuru. Under the auspice of this newly established brand, PropertyGuru provided a one-stop online shop for the listing and sale of residential and commercial properties to individual and institutional buyers and investors. Prior to Steve's current role, he held executive positions in various venture capital firms including Skype, AOL, Virgin Media, Vodafone, Extreme Media, iPass and Ariadne Capital. Steve's expertise in leading global teams resulted in a US$500 million turnover for a business unit for Cable & Wireless. In 2007, Steve was awarded the Spirit of Enterprise Award in recognition of his contributions to entrepreneurship in Singapore. Steve is a non-executive director for two other firms, an angel investor and member of the Business Angels Network South East Asia.