PropertyGuru Q2 Sentiment Survey Indicates More Buyers Concerned about Rising Property Prices

79% Regard Singapore Property as Expensive

Singapore, 28 July 2011 — PropertyGuru, Singapore’s leading property site, today revealed its second quarter 2011 survey results on property market sentiment amongst Singaporeans. The survey shows that home buyers and property investors are less optimistic about property affordability as compared to Q1 2011. 79% of respondents perceive property in all categories in Singapore as expensive, up from 75% in Q1.

First Time Buyers

PropertyGuru’s latest quarterly survey conducted in June 2011 featured over 2,200 respondents and for the first time, has a separate analysis on first-time home buyers. 70% of first time buyers are between 25 – 34 years of age while 36% of them have a monthly household income of between $4,000 - $8,000.

Of this figure, 48% are interested in purchasing HDB flats and a surprisingly high 42% are interested in purchasing completed condominiums. 64% of first time buyers who are looking to purchase HDB flats prefer resale flats compared to BTO flats [presumably due to time to move in].

Almost 50% of all first time home buyers started their property search process 7 to 18 months ago. Factors like price (35%), location (29%), limited supply (12%) and selection process (11%) were the main reasons cited as affecting time taken to purchase their first home. 50% of the first time buyers started searching for property 7 months to 1.5 years ago. 73% of HDB seekers are willing to wait 2 to 3 years to purchase property while 68% of Condominium seekers are willing to wait 1 to 2 years.


Highlights of the PropertyGuru Affordability Sentiment Survey

- The key findings of the PropertyGuru Affordability Sentiment survey include:

- The consumer property sentiment index for Second Quarter 2011 is 2.6 on a scale of 5*, versus 2.8 in our Q1 2011 survey, a drop of 0.2 points. This shows that consumers are concerned about rising property prices, despite recent cooling measures announced earlier this year.

- More people (79%) feel that property in all categories in Singapore is expensive compared to 75% in our Q1 survey. 34% will not make purchases due to the high prices.

- 63% of respondents are of the view that HDB prices may continue to increase in the next 6 months, compared to 56% in Q1, an increase of 7 percentage points.

- 58% felt that HDB cash over valuation (COV) for resale HDB’s would continue to increase over the next 12 months – despite the recent significant increase in BTO flats.

- Over half of those surveyed (54%) feel transactions across all property types would increase in the next 6 months, compared to 44% in Q1, an increase of 10 percentage points.

- Overall, there is less optimism towards government interventions. As much as 57% feel that our government is not doing enough to stabilise the property market, compared to 48% in our Q1 survey, an increase of almost 10 percentage points in pessimism.

- Condominiums are viewed as the most attractive (48%) type of property.

“Our latest quarterly survey gives an interesting insight into current sentiment towards the property market. Whilst consumers remain bullish about rising market prices, they are increasingly concerned about ‘affordability’, adopting a ‘wait and see’ approach and want the Government to take further action. As a result, we can expect buyers to be more discerning, intensifying their search before making a purchase. PropertyGuru addresses this need by providing the largest database of available property for sale or rent,” stated Steve Melhuish, PropertyGuru Group CEO.

Some of the other key findings of buying behaviour include:

- With the rising property prices in Singapore, investors are seeking opportunities outside of Singapore. 45% would consider property investments outside Singapore, similar to our Q1 survey.

- Malaysia (37%) tops the most popular foreign country for property investments.

- 38% of respondents spend 20% to 30% of their monthly household income on housing loans or rent. 4% spend 50% and above.

- Buyers and spouse play equally important roles in making property decisions.

- For those considering property investments, capital appreciation and getting a passive income from rentals are the top motivational factors.

Conducted quarterly, the PropertyGuru property sentiment survey aims to gain a better perspective on the property market, current consumer sentiment and how it may affect future property decisions, tracking consumer property sentiment for each quarter. The next survey will be conducted in September 2011.


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

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.