CommercialGuru Grows 500% — One Year After Launch

Demonstrates ongoing strong demand in Singapore’s commercial property market

Singapore, 3 October, 2011 — Driven by strong domestic and international demand for commercial property here, www.CommercialGuru.com.sg, Singapore’s only commercial property portal, has experienced an amazing 500 percent increase in traffic during the last 12 months. Launched in August 2010, Commercial Guru is today used by more than 140,000 business users and investors viewing almost 2 million pages monthly, with almost 15 percent overseas users. At the same time the number of commercial property listings available on the site has steadily increased to 18,000 today.
     
Latest industry data on the commercial property market shows optimism and continued demand for office, retail and industrial space; as more private property investors are now channelled into this sector as an effect of the government's efforts to control the residential market.

The star performer this quarter has been industrial property, with sales (excluding Government Land Sales sites) totalling S$1.07 billion, about 2.5 times the S$418.6 million recorded in Q2 and accounting for around 28 percent of the S$3.8 billion in property investment for Q3.

According to Savills, buying activity in the industrial property market has remained strong, with total transaction value in the first half of this year at S$2.3 billion, reflecting a strong 14 percent year-on-year growth. Nearly S$1.1 billion worth of industrial properties changed hands in the second quarter of 2011, spiking 42 percent over the same period last year.

Over in the office sector, property investment sales are expected to reach between S$4 billion and S$6 billion, while 2011's full-year investment figures could reach S$25 billion to S$27 billion.   

Meanwhile, Singapore's retail sales in July grew a seasonally adjusted 2.1 percent, compared to an upwardly revised 1.7 percent rise in June. In a similar period last year, retail sales rose 10.7 percent. The annual growth for July was noticeably higher than economists' estimate of an 8.7 percent increase.

Amid such buoyant commercial property demand, it's no surprise that CommercialGuru.com.sg, PropertyGuru Group’s commercial property portal, has grown its user base and usage exponentially. Today, the site generates approximately 10,000 sales leads every month for commercial property developers, real estate agencies and agents – from domestic and overseas buyers, including investors. Advertisers include Ascendas, Mapletree, Far East Organization, Citi Commercial, Savills and Dennis Wee Group as well as a number of other commercial property developers, real estate agencies and almost 5,000 agents representing most of Singapore's real estate agencies.

Other achievements over the last year include the development of commercial property seminars and events for business owners, SME’s and agents. This included a full house event of 500 real estate agents at HDB Hub as well as a co-organised seminar with Canon, featuring NRA Capital's Executive Chairman, Mr. Kevin Scully and Mr. Nicholas Mak, Research Head at SLP International.  

In addition, CommercialGuru is in collaboration with Life mastery Academy, one of the industry’s top training providers on their commercial property course, which will provide a solid foundation for those entering into the industry.

“We developed www.CommercialGuru.com.sg in 2010 in response to business users and a growing number of property investors request for a dedicated portal focused on commercial property. It’s growth and successes has far exceeded our expectations — with 145,000 business users and investors now using the site every month,” stated Steve Melhuish, Group CEO, PropertyGuru Group.

Launched in August 2010, CommercialGuru is Singapore's only independent, dedicated commercial and industrial property portal, with detailed listings of over 18,000 commercial properties. In addition, the website provides research and daily updates on the latest industrial, retail and office news.

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Media Contact:
Ms Winnie Khoo, Chief Marketing Officer
Contact number: +65 6238 5971
Email: winnie@propertyguru.com.sg

About PropertyGuru Group:

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 tripling its revenue growth in 2010.

PropertyGuru is now Asia’s leading online property portal, with a presence in eight countries, including offices in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and partnerships with leading property websites in Australia, Hong Kong, India and Macau. It has over 4 million buyers viewing almost 50 million property pages monthly, with a growing database of 300,000 opted-in buyers and over 14,500 real estate agents.

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 370,000 residential and commercial properties and clients include almost 1,000 prominent developers from Asia, Europe and the Americas, as well as over 14,500 real estate agents in Asia.

PropertyGuru has also won multiple awards, including the Hitwise “No.1 Website in the Property Industry” award, the Singapore IT Federation (SITF) award for “Best E-Enterprise Company 2010”, the Singapore Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (SVCA) award for “Best Performing VC Backed Company 2010”, Marketing Magazine’s “Top Digital Media of the Year 2010” award, CNBC World's “Best Property Portal Award 2009" and the "Google Zeitgeist Singapore 9th Fastest Rising Search Term 2009" award.