Asia’s Leading Property Portal Group Set for Further Growth and Innovation
SINGAPORE, June 8 (Bernama) -- PropertyGuru, Asia’s leading property portal
group, today announced that it has secured a double digit million Singapore
dollar strategic investment from ImmobilienScout24, Europe’s top property portal
group and a subsidiary of global company Deutsche Telekom. This is one of the
biggest online deals in Asia this year, and re-enforces the rapidly emerging
online media opportunity in South East Asia.
The investment will further strengthen PropertyGuru''s leading market position
and support the Company’s continued innovation focus, developing services to
help its clients find and advertise properties, as well as support further
expansion within the region. It will also give PropertyGuru access to additional
talent and expert resources, with both parties working closely together to share
ideas, best practices and develop new services.
Both companies share similar successes in their home countries and a vision for
growth.
PropertyGuru is Asia’s leading property portal group with a presence in 9
countries, directly and indirectly via partners. The Company''s websites are used
by 8.2 million buyers, viewing over 65 million property pages and generating
over 200,000 sales enquiries for advertisers - every month. In Singapore, the
Company''s PropertyGuru and CommercialGuru websites account for 85% of all total
page views from property seekers using property portal websites (source: Google
AdPlanner), and over double the number of user views as compared to all other
competitor’s property portal traffic. PropertyGuru currently employs 240 "Gurus"
across 6 offices in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. The Company
recently reported double revenue and traffic growth over the previous year.
ImmobilienScout24 is Germany’s biggest real estate marketplace, attracting more
than 7.5 million users per month (unique visitors; source Comscore Media
Metrix). Over 260 million virtual real estate tours are taken on this portal,
and more than 1.5 million different properties are offered - every month at
ImmobilienScout24. The company is based in Berlin and employs over 500 people.
ImmobilienScout24 is part of the Scout24 Group, a subsidiary of Deutsche
Telekom, a S$94 billion turnover company with 236,000 employees in over 50
countries.
"The Asian region is a dynamic growth market and therefore of significant
strategic importance to Scout24 Group. We are pleased to have found a partner in
PropertyGuru Group with a strong super-regional position. Together, we will be
able to develop the Asian market," said Dr. Martin Enderle, CEO at Scout24
Group. Scout24 Group''s international alignment supports the implementation of
Deutsche Telekom''s corporate strategy by further extending its portfolio in the
fast-growing Internet business.
"We see strong economic growth, rising middle classes, urbanisation, developing
property markets, as well as an online explosion, taking place throughout Asia.
PropertyGuru sits in middle of all of this. Our revenues and traffic doubled
over the previous year, and we increased our leadership position in our markets.
We welcome ImmobilienScout24 as a strategic investor, which will accelerate our
growth and supported additional investment in developing innovative services for
our clients," stated Steve Melhuish, CEO and co-founder of PropertyGuru Group.
"This shareholding is part of our internationalization strategy to invest early
on in emerging countries with strong growth and to establish the use of the
Internet as a central and most effective instrument for seeking and marketing
real estate. We have built up Germany''s leading real estate marketplace and we
are pleased to contribute this know-how to our cooperation with PropertyGuru,"
emphasised Marc Stilke, CEO at ImmobilienScout24.
Asia''s population is expected to grow 70% over the following 20 years (source:
Fraunhofer Institute). In addition, ongoing economic development, rising
middles classes and declining household sizes is expected to drive urbanisation
and rapidly growing property markets across Asia. An increasing number of real
estate and new home developments especially in urban areas, are marketed on the
internet1. This investment will therefore allow PropertyGuru Group to reach out
to a combined population of roughly 340 million people and S$900 million annual
real estate advertising market (source: Nielsen and PropertyGuru), which is
rapidly moving online.
About ImmobilienScout24:
ImmobilienScout24 is Germany’s biggest real estate marketplace. Attracting more
than 7.5 million users per month (unique visitors; source comScore Media
Metrix), the website is by far the most frequented real estate portal on the
German-speaking Internet. Over 260 million virtual real estate tours are taken
on this portal every month.
More than 1.5 million different properties are offered every month at
ImmobilienScout24. The company is based in Berlin and employs over 500 people.
ImmobilienScout24 is part of the Scout24 Group. Alongside ImmobilienScout24, the
Scout24 Group comprises AutoScout24, ElectronicScout24, FinanceScout24,
FriendScout24, JobScout24 and TravelScout24. Scout24 is a subsidiary of Deutsche
Telekom. More information at www.immobilienscout24.de.
About PropertyGuru:
PropertyGuru was founded in 2006 as a self-funded company, with a vision to make
the property search process a breeze for buyers, sellers and investors. Taking
advantage of Asia’s growing affluence for property and the online boom, it
received its first VC investment funding in 2008. Since then, the company has
grown rapidly, reaping profits and positive cashflow in 2009 and doubling
revenue growth in 2011.
PropertyGuru is now Asia’s leading online property portal group, with a presence
in nine countries, including offices in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand
and partnerships with leading property websites in Australia, Hong Kong, India,
Vietnam and China. It has 8.2 million buyers viewing 65 million property pages
monthly, over 200,000 mobile applications downloaded and a growing database of
over 400,000 opted-in buyers.
PropertyGuru provides an integrated media platform that real estate developers
and agencies can use to promote their brands and generate sales leads. The
entire PropertyGuru community boasts 400,000 residential and commercial
properties and clients include almost 200 prominent developers from Asia, Europe
and the Americas, as well as over 20,743 real estate agents in Asia.
SOURCE: PropertyGuru Group
FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
NAME : Jason Thoe
Head of Marketing
TEL : +6012 2645004
EMAIL : jasonthoe@propertyguru.com.my
NAME : Ms Winnie Khoo
Chief Operating Officer
MOBILE : +65 6238 5971
EMAIL : winnie@allproperty.com.sg
--BERNAMA