PropertyGuru and NTUC U Associate collaborate to help future-proof real estate agents

SINGAPORE, 12 August 2016 – PropertyGuru Group, (“PropertyGuru” or the “Group”), Asia's leading online property group, held its 9th Agent Summit today, providing a platform for industry knowledge sharing and skills enhancement for the country’s property agents. Approximately 600 agents and real estate partners attended the full-day event. The session was also attended by Mr Chan Chun Sing, Secretary-General of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), who held a close-door dialogue session with summit attendees.

The PropertyGuru Agent Summit is a bi-annual industry event established to help Singapore property agents gather more building blocks for success through knowledge sharing. The Summit is part of a series of initiatives developed by PropertyGuru to provide real estate agents with a well-rounded set of skills to enhance employability and career advancement. Today’s full-day Summit focused in particular on keeping Singapore agents up-to-date on the outlook of the real estate industry, and also included an industry dialogue session to engage agents in direct conversations regarding their concerns, as well as to provide insights into how agents can leverage NTUC’s U Associate ecosystem of partners to acquire value-added transferable skills to remain relevant amidst today’s challenges.

Mr Lewis Ng, Managing Director at PropertyGuru Singapore, said: “Singapore agents acknowledge the need to constantly update and enhance their skills in order to ‘future-proof’ themselves in our industry. While the majority of agents reveal they are happy with their careers and value the flexibility and independence of their profession, they also recognise how enhanced skills such as digital marketing, sales techniques and financial management will provide them with greater career success in the long-term.”

Added Ng, “With the needs of the agents in mind, we are working closely with partners such as U Associate as well as platforms such as the Agent Summit and a series of Agent Masterclasses, to help them improve their skills and provide greater value-add to Singapore’s property seekers.”

Mr Vivek Kumar, Director of U Associate, said: “Our consumers are increasingly comfortable dealing with mobile and digital services. Hence, our property agents must be better equipped to provide value-added services and stay abreast of market trends to emerge as a trusted advisor to the property buyers and sellers. By leveraging our U Associate ecosystem, comprising 36 professional guilds, agents can gain valuable cross-sectoral knowledge and skillsets from the various partners and industry leaders. Thereafter, they will be able to provide adjacent advice, including financial planning and market trends, to set themselves apart in this highly competitive industry.”

Long-term support for Singapore agents 

As part of the long-term support for Singapore agents, PropertyGuru conducted its inaugural Digital Marketing Masterclass, jointly organised by PropertyGuru and NTUC U Associate, in January 2016. Targeting 100 participants, additional Masterclasses will be held in September 2016, focusing on Digital Marketing, Social Media Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation, to empower agents with the right skillset to succeed in marketing their services online. 

In the pipeline are also plans to leverage the U Associate ecosystem, which is part of the larger Labour Movement network, to support our working people in the property industry. Designed to meet their different needs, property agents can tap on the suite of products and services offered by the Labour Movement. Some of these include digital marketing workshops, financial literacy classes and legal clinics, which have been identified as essential skillsets to help agents remain competitive and relevant. Moving forward, U Associate and PropertyGuru will remain as strategic partners to future-proof agents and uplift the industry, to enable them to stay competitive in the local landscape.

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For media queries, please contact: 

Cherry Lui
Ruder Finn Asia
6336 0729
luic@ruderfinnasia.com 

Michelle Tan
Ruder Finn Asia
6336 6408
tanm@ruderfinnasia.com 

Khoo Xi Ying (Ms)
National Trades Union Congress
6213 8196
xiying_khoo@ntuc.org.sg

About PropertyGuru Group 

PropertyGuru is Asia’s foremost online property group. With a presence in nine markets, it helps over 16 million people find their dream home – every month. 

Starting out as a property search portal, PropertyGuru was founded in 2006 by two entrepreneurs with a vision to simplify the property search process and to help buyers, sellers and investors make more informed property decisions – faster. Today, the Group manages a suite of No.1 property search portals in the region, and also covers property-related publications, events, awards, project marketing solutions and more. PropertyGuru operates 14 award-winning mobile apps, in multiple languages, across all major platforms; these have recorded over 3 million app downloads till date.  

Headquartered in Singapore, PropertyGuru brings insightful content on new homes, as well as essential market news and information, to people’s fingertips, helping them make confident property decisions. With innovative technologies, PropertyGuru raises the bar on how property-seekers find their dream home, offering highly interactive and immersive experiences. These include 3D virtual walk-throughs of home units and drone videos of local neighbourhoods. At any time, property-seekers can find more than 1 million homes across Southeast Asia, be it brand new developments or well-loved resale units, for buying or renting.

PropertyGuru also provides data and technology-backed solutions to real estate developers and agents, helping them sell property faster and enabling more effective sales forces. Currently, the Group generates over 500,000 enquiries for them – every month – across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. These enquiries, in turn, help to drive transactions valued at over US$15 billion annually. 

PropertyGuru received Southeast Asia’s second largest tech investment in 2015, and is backed by a world-class investor base that includes TPG, a global private investment firm with over US$67 billion of assets under management and an investor in both Uber and Airbnb; Emtek, a media conglomerate in Indonesia; and Square Peg Capital, an Australia-founded investor of Internet companies.

For more information, please visit propertyguru.com.

About National Trades Union Congress 

The National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) is a national confederation of trade unions as well as a network of professional associations and partners across all sectors in Singapore. NTUC's objectives are to help Singapore stay competitive and working people remain employable for life; to enhance the social status and well-being of our members and working people; and to build a strong, responsible and caring labour movement. 

NTUC's vision is to be an inclusive labour movement for all collars, ages and nationalities. NTUC is at the heart of the Labour Movement, which comprises 60 affiliated unions, two affiliated taxi associations, 11 social enterprises, six related organisations as well as a growing ecosystem of U Associates and enterprise partners. For more details, visit www.ntuc.org.sg.

About NTUC U Associate

The NTUC U Associate Programme is a key initiative by the Labour Movement to reach out to Professionals, Managers and Executives (PMEs) through professional associations and bring them the U Advantage of the Labour Movement. Launched in March 2011, the programme comprises of an ecosystem of associations across various sectors including Financial, Human Resource, Project Management, Marketing, Engineering and more. NTUC and its U Associates work with a sectorial focus to develop career and skills progression plans for our PMEs in these sectors. Through these alliances, we prepare our PMEs to be future-ready and future-proof and open up greater opportunities for both the associations and PMEs. NTUC U Associates empower the PMEs across four key areas – Protection, Progression, Placement and Privileges (4Ps). Please see below for list of U Associates.