Kuala Lumpur, August 23th 2012 – Regional online property portal, PropertyGuru.com launched its first Malaysian mobile app, available for iPhones and Android based smartphone users in the country.
The app is part of its strategy to strengthen its positioning in Malaysia and capture market share in the fast growing mobile market. As of 15 August, over 10,000 downloads were reported within a week of its launch, placing the company well on track to hits its target of 50,000 downloads by end of September 2012.
The app’s strong response can be attributed to its visual based, easy-to-use interface and other features. These include comprehensive property listings and detailed descriptions identical to PropertyGuru’s website (www.propertyguru.com.my), direct dialling convenience to agents with a single button click, detailed location maps of available properties based on the users’ present location, list of favourites and recent searches and so on.
Downloadable for free, the newly launched app literally places a comprehensive property portal in users’ pockets – allowing them to search for properties whether to buy or rent 24/7 while on the go – anytime, anywhere. Content is customised for the benefit of Malaysian homebuyers and the local property industry.
The end result is a personal property portal that Malaysian homebuyers, agents and property developers can use on the go at their own convenience.
“The app has been well received as it makes house hunting as seamless, painless and convenient as possible while empowering users to make informed decisions at any stage of their property search. “This is our 2nd app after launching our AgentNet app, which is a mobile application specifically for real estate agents. Both apps complement each other,” explained PropertyGuru.com.my Country Manager, John Paul Sta Maria.
With an advertising budget of RM1 million for the rest of 2012, the regional leader in online property search and listing will be aggressively marketing the mobile app, which it believes is an important niche area for the company.
“Throughout the region, we are seeing more and more people moving towards greater mobile connectivity and penetration. In Malaysia, mobile phones are expected to overtake PCs as the most common web access device by 2015. Hence, our app is part of staying in touch with trends and to establish a firm position in the mobile market,” he added.
The mobile app is available on the iTunes App Store, Google Play and the landing page of www.propertyguru.com.my/mobile.
Property Guru Consumer Sentiment Survey Q2 to Be Available Soon
On a separate note, Sta Maria mentioned that the results of PropertyGuru’s 2012 Q2 Consumer Sentiment survey (Malaysia) will be released soon.
Key findings include:
• 82% perceive current residential property prices as expensive.
• 36% of the responses hold developers as responsible for pushing the rising construction costs and high land prices to consumers, 20% of responses indicate that herd mentality of buyers is pushing up prices, while 10% indicate competition with foreigners as the main reason.
• 74% of respondents feel all property types in Malaysia are expensive, compared to 65% in Q1 2012 and 73% in Q2 2011.
• Perception of affordability is highest in southern Malaysia where 44% respondents perceive apartments/condominiums are affordable compared to the 28% in Northern Malaysia and 35% in Klang Valley.
• 70% feel property prices will increase in the next 6 months, compared to the 72% in Q1 2012 and 86% in Q2 2011.
About PropertyGuru.com
PropertyGuru.com 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. It provides consumers the platform to find properties for purchase, sale, rental or investment and a direct channel to contact agents.
Today, it has grown into Asia’s leading online property portal group with a presence in 10 countries with offices in Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and China. It has over 9.3 million buyers viewing more than 74 million property pages monthly with a growing database of 200,000 buyers and over 21,000 real estate agents.
Its Malaysian portal, www.propertyguru.com.my is the fastest growing property portal in the country. The Malaysian portal currently has over 900,000 visitors viewing more than 4.5 million pages monthly, with over 115,000 listings and 3,500 agents signed up.
PropertyGuru.com.my is designed with the end-user in mind, featuring 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.