SINGAPORE, 16 JULY 2014 – At PropertyGuru, we believe in giving back to society and improving the lives of those around us. Every year, we conduct activities to support the needy. Since 2011, PropertyGuru employees have raised over S$70,000 for a number of causes, including Yellow Ribbon, the Thai floods, Japanese Tsunami, Hair for Hope (Children's Cancer Society), as well as Earth Hour and Blood Donation Drives.
This year, "GuruCares", our community outreach program has chosen Habitat for Humanity as our beneficiary. Habitat for Humanity is a non-profit organization that builds and repairs houses all over the world using volunteer labor and donations.
In July, sixty of our employees from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand will travel to Rayong, a town two hours south of Bangkok, and we will help build two houses to serve as homes for two less fortunate families. For this effort, an amount of S$30,000 is needed to be raised. Over the past few weeks, fundraising activities were conducted internally – including the sale of homemade cookies and “GuruCares” T-shirts; providing professional dance classes, manicure, cup-washing and car-washing services, as well as organizing a flea market. Together with the generous donations of our business partners, we have managed to raise more than S$17,000 so far across four countries.
The two beneficiaries of the program are Mr. Wichit Konpien and Mrs. Wilawan Pongsapang. Mr. Wichit Konpien and his wife work in Thailand to support their two school-age children. While they have fixed income, ongoing living expenses are rising daily. Unfortunately their salaries are not keeping up with the cost of living, which has impacted their ability to meet their dream of owning a home. They have rented their current home for approximately ten years but support from Habitat for Humanity will enable them to move into their own home for the first time, easing their financial burden and helping them to continue providing support to their growing children.
Mrs. Wilawan Pongsapang, her husband and two children currently live in a small house, occupying a mere 18 square metres. The presence of mice and cockroaches have impeded their ability to provide a clean, safe environment for their children and the monthly rental costs are preventing them from amassing sufficient savings to own a home. Assistance from Habitat for Humanity will help Mrs. Wilawan Pongsapang and her family move into a more permanent, cleaner and safer environment while enabling them to save money.
FOR MORE QUERIES, CONTACT:
Matthew Overington
D: +65 6390 3316
M: +65 9839 6620
Email: matthew.overington@hkstrategies.com
Editor’s Note
About PropertyGuru Group
PropertyGuru Group is Asia’s leading online property portal group used by almost 11 million property buyers, viewing over 91 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 16 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 – with over 100,000 copies circulated islandwide 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.