PropertyGuru Acquires Thailand’s DDProperty

Investing THB80 million to affirm footprint in local online property market

Singapore, 22 July 2011, Friday — The future certainly looks bright for DDProperty.com after the acquisition by PropertyGuru, Asia's leading online property portal group, aiming to expand its regional online business. The venture is ready to spend 80 million baht to affirm the website’s position as Thailand’s No. 1 in the eyes of online property traders.

Tanomsak Khacharoen, managing director of PropertyGuru Group Co. Ltd and a co-founder of DDproperty.com (www.ddproperty.com), Thailand's top property portal website, confirmed that PropertyGuru has recently acquired a substantial stake in DDproperty.com. PropertyGuru is Asia’s leading online property group and owner of the No. 1 property website in Singapore. The group which currently has a presence in eight countries through its own operations and partnerships are now committing to expand and strengthen its online property business in Thailand.

“This partnership happened because both PropertyGuru and DDProperty.com share the same business goal and see the huge growth potential in Thailand’s online property market. Together we aim to support and develop DDProperty.com and uphold its status as the local online property market leader. DDProperty.com has seen consistent growth in traffic and revenue for all 4 years since its conception. The website, which has a database of 75,000 opted-in members, currently services 740,000 visitors viewing 5 million pages per month. It offers over 95,000 properties for sale and rent in Thailand and enjoys a whopping 188% growth in visits over the past year.”

Mr. Tanomsak added that, along with the group’s investment, PropertyGuru is bringing to DDProperty its experience, know-how, innovative technology, as well as manpower which is exactly what was needed for the originally a two-man operation. From now, consumers can expect new search engine innovations especially mobile applications on iPhone and Android which is highly popular for PropertyGuru’s Singaporean web portal. These applications will offer convenience which certainly ensures consumers’ satisfaction.

Steve Melhuish, CEO of PropertyGuru Group, revealed that the group has been surveying and gathering information on Thailand’s property-related online websites and businesses and found that the overall online advertising sector has the high value of over 1,500 million baht a year with growth rate of over 20% in the past year. The dynamic online property market is still young and has a lot of room to grow. In the search for potential partnership, the group confidently chose DDProperty.com which possesses huge growth opportunities and has a strong foundation to grow upon.

“We expect to invest over 80 million baht during the course of 2 years to upgrade and develop the website’s data management along with focusing on marketing and promotional activities to give DDProperty.com more exposure. By the end of this year we aim to see at least 1.5 million visits with over 10 million page views monthly. The development will concentrate on improving the quality of information, web accessibility, and ease of use. We will also build a database of property projects as well as developers and agents in Thailand so consumers can find exactly what they are looking for more conveniently. From the stimulation of Thai government’s property development policy, we are anticipating a lot more dynamic in property trading and launches of new condominium and residential construction projects, which in turns means the steady rise of advertising revenue from their promotional campaigns.”

“Propertyguru’s traffic grew 85% over the last six months to reach over 4 million visitors viewing almost 50 million pageviews. In addition, revenue grew by 70% compared with the same period last year. Agent numbers continued to grow almost 26% to reach over 14,500 agents by the end of June.”

“This acquisition gives PropertyGuru a unique regional marketing capability to real estate developers and agencies wishing to target buyers in multiple Asian countries, including Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, India, Macau and Hong Kong.”

* * * * * * * * * * *

Media Contact:
PropertyGuru Group Co.,Ltd
Ms Siriporn Paewattanakul
Contact number: +66 81 904 8787
Email: siriporn@ddproperty.com

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 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.

Asia’s Leading Property Portal Group includes:
 
www.PropertyGuru.com.sg is used by over 1.9 million consumers viewing 29 million pages, generating an estimated 225,000 leads for advertisers - every month. The site provides real-time access to multimedia-rich content covering property-related products, services, news, advice, guides, tools and the largest online property database in Singapore. It works closely with prominent real estate developers, housing agents and home-related firms locally and overseas.
 
www.CommercialGuru.com.sg was launched in August 2010 and is used by 140,000 business users browsing 1.6 million pages and generating an estimated 50,000 leads for advertisers every month. It is Singapore’s only independent, dedicated commercial and industrial property portal.

www.LoanGuru.com.sg was launched in January 2010 as an independent online mortgage brokerage, providing real-time access to over 300 mortgage packages from 23 major local and international banks. It processes approximately $60m of home loans per month.

www.HomeGuru.com.my is the leading Malaysian property portal set up as part of a joint venture between PropertyGuru and Malaysia’s RedBerry Media group in 2010. It has almost 240,000 users viewing over 1 million pages monthly and gives consumers a platform to find properties for purchase, sale, rental or investment and a direct channel to search for and contact agents. Designed with the end-user in mind, it features real-time access to multimedia-rich content, covering property-related products, services, news, advice, guides, tools and a rapidly growing online property database in Malaysia. It works closely with prominent real estate developers, housing agents and home-related firms in Malaysia and overseas.

www.FullHouse.com.my was established in 2005 for Malaysians to efficiently and conveniently search for properties on the Internet. It has grown in popularity, attracting almost 200,000 visitors viewing more than 1.2 million pages every month, to become one of Malaysia’s top property portals. With hundreds of housing projects and more than 80,000 property listings to date, Fullhouse.com.my is the preferred online marketing channel for major real estate players. It constantly explores ways to serve customers through innovative and effective strategies. The company’s objective is to enhance the experience of finding a new home and lead the industry into a new era of real estate marketing.
 
www.Rumah.com was founded in 2007 and is Indonesia's top property website, with over 600,000 visitors viewing 8 million pages every month. The website lists over 120,000 properties for sale and rent in Indonesia and has a database of 11,000 opted-in members. Rumah.com is an online media campaign that provides the ideal search experience for all types of property: residential, commercial and industrial. It allows sellers and renters to place on its site property advertisements which can be easily viewed by prospective buyers, who can search for property based on location and / or price.
 
www.DDProperty.com was established in 2005 to help Thai consumers find their desired properties for sale and rent in the fastest and most efficient way. Almost 740,000 visitors use the website every month making it Thailand’s top property search portals. DDProperty.com allows users to search for residential and commercial properties and constantly finds new ways to improve its navigation and search capabilities to allow consumers to find their dream property quickly.