Bangkok, 26th June 2012 - DDProperty.com, Thailand’s number one property portal and part of the PropertyGuru Group, Asia’s leading property website group, has launched a major marketing campaign alongside innovative new services which are changing the way people buy, sell and rent property in Thailand.
In April 2012, DDProperty launched the first mobile application for real estate agents in Thailand to help them manage their property advertising, messages and enquiries “on the go”, and in real time via their iPhones.
This was followed in June by a new mobile application which helps home buyers easily find properties whilst on the move, showing property photos, videos, prices and maps. The service also includes an innovative “show me properties nearby” application that uses the iPhone’s internal GPS system to help locate properties for sale and for rent within the nearby vicinity, and shows them on a map.
Already 16% of users are accessing DDProperty.com via a mobile phone or tablet device. In addition, the number of visitors who access DDproperty via mobile phones has increased by 163 percent over the previous 12 months . The new DDProperty home buyer iPhone is available for download from http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ddproperty/id487558434?mt=8
The DDProperty.com website has recently undergone a makeover and now boasts many exciting and innovative features over the previous few months. Today it has launched an English version this week to cater to Thailand’s growing expat residents, as well as English-speaking buyers overseas (more than 10% of DDProperty users are based overseas). This includes information, property listings and daily news specifically targeted to non-Thai customers, whether in Thailand or around the world. The new English version is also expected to see increased demand for properties in popular resort areas such as Phuket, Pattaya, Koh Samui, Krabi and Hua Hin.
PropertyGuru recently announced a THB1.5 billion investment from ImmobilientScout24, Europe’s number one property portal and part of Deutsche Telecom. One of the benefits of this partnership will see both market-leading companies share ideas and expertise – benefitting the real estate sectors in each region.
DDProperty.com is already the established market leader in Thailand (source: Alexa.com, Google AdPlanner and TrueHits). It is number one in terms of traffic, and also in terms of listings with more than 140,000 properties being advertised currently. The website adopts the same successful model used by its sister websites in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Compared with the same time last year, the internet traffic to DDProperty.com has almost tripled to 1.3 million monthly users – up from 450,000. This growth has been driven by the rapid increase in Internet users, Smartphones, Internet-enabled tablet devices and a growing property market.
PropertyGuru has devoted 2012 to building and strengthening the DDproperty brand and has embarked on a major THB20 million marketing campaign online and offline, with the aim of reaching professionals and parents in the 25 to 40-year-old age group. Current campaigns include high visibility advertising on the BTS and MRT mass transit networks (see below), through billboards, print and online banner advertising. The company will also be holding several property exhibitions in Bangkok, as well as the first Thailand Property Showcase in Singapore next month.
Steve Melhuish, CEO of the PropertyGuru group, said: “We are delighted with the incredible growth and becoming the number one property website in Thailand. We’re very excited about the market and plan to continue to invest aggressively in the DDProperty brand and innovative new services to help Thailand’s homebuyers, real estate agents, developers and sellers. By 2015, we expect more than 15% of the company’s total revenue to come from Thailand. Our plan is to build the DDproperty brand into the most recognised brand in its sector so that when people think of Property, they think of DDProperty”.
He added: “We have launched Mobile Property Applications, and we have rejuvenated our website to bring it into line with the PropertyGuru brand image. The site’s search system has also been simplified, making it easier for customers to search for and locate properties. We have also added English language to the website. This isn’t merely a translation of Thai content into English; we have information, property listings and daily news that is specifically targeted to non-Thai customers, whether in Thailand or around the world.
“In Thailand, numbers of online and mobile users are growing very fast. This can be seen from Google statistics where the growth rate of people searching for homes online is up by between 300 – 500 percent since 2009. This number is growing faster than that of other countries in the region,” added Melhuish.
Research from Google, which highlights consumer behaviour in Thailand, shows the number of people in Thailand searching online for property increased 500 percent since 2009 – with Thailand leading Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore for the number of property searches online. This number is expected to increase over the coming years – driven by rapid adoption of the Internet and Smartphones in Thailand.
A recent report by Nielsen showed that 24% of total media consumption in Thailand was now via the Internet/Mobile. Even now, 16% of all visits to DDProperty.com are coming from mobile devices.
The property market in Thailand continued to be strong, despite the floods in late 2011. According to recent research by CBRE Thailand, eight projects were launched in Q1 2012 in the downtown area of Bangkok. The number of newly launched units increased from 2,679 in Q1 2012 compared to 1,153 in the previous quarter. In addition, the overall occupancy rate for the down town Bangkok area increased to 73.1% in Q12012.
Some of this was supported by a 1% increase in expats holding working permits from 100,641 in Q42011 to 101,385 in total. Japanese nationals made up 25% of the total. Although completions of developer-built single-detached houses in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region decreased drastically over the 12 months due to delays from the floods, completions of developer-built townhouses and shophouses increased 4.8% versus the same time last year.
Media Contact:
Winnie Khoo
Chief Operating Officer
+65 6238 5971
winnie@propertyguru.com.sg
About PropertyGuru:
PropertyGuru was founded in 2006 in Singapore by two successful entrepreneurs with a vision to simplify the property search process for buyers, sellers and investors in Asia. Taking advantage of Asia’s growing affluence for property and the online boom, it received its first VC investment funding in 2008 and in June 2012 Deutsche Telekom became a strategic minority investor. The Company has continued to grow rapidly with revenues, traffic and agents increasing almost twofold in the previous 12 months.
PropertyGuru is now Asia’s leading online property portal group, with a presence in nine countries, including offices in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and partnerships with leading property websites in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Vietnam and China. It has 8.3 million buyers viewing 65 million property pages monthly, over 200,000 mobile applications downloaded and a growing database of over 400,000 opted-in buyers.
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 450,000 residential and commercial properties and clients include almost 200 prominent developers from Asia, Europe and the Americas, as well as over 21,000 real estate agents in Asia.
PropertyGuru has won multiple awards:
OPP Awards For Excellence 2011 (Gold) “Best Media Brand”
Singapore IT Federation (SITF) Merit Award for “Mobile Application” 2011
OPP Awards For Excellence 2011 (Silver) “Best Online Service”
Singapore IT Federation (SITF) award for “Best E-Enterprise Company 2010”
Red Herring Top 100 Asia Award 2011
Singapore Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (SVCA) award for “Best Performing VC Backed Company 2010”
Marketing Magazine Digital Media of the Year 2011, Singapore Property Category
Marketing Magazine’s “Top Digital Media of the Year 2010” Award
South East Asian SME Tiger Awards 2011 Gold Award – Online Business
CNBC World's “Best Property Portal Award 2009" Award
Hitwise “No.1 Website in the Property Industry” award 2011”
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 4.6 million consumers viewing 42.8 million pages, generating over 250,000 leads for advertisers every month. PropertyGuru.com.sg is the 2nd largest domestic website in Singapore. It 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.
www.CommercialGuru.com.sg was launched in August 2010 and is used by 200,000 business users browsing 2.4 million pages and generating over 50,000 leads for advertisers every month. It is Singapore’s only independent, dedicated commercial and industrial property portal and is the 2nd largest property website in Singapore, behind PropertyGuru.com.sg.
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 generates over 500 loan leads per month.
www.PropertyGuru.com.my is the fastest growing Malaysian property portal set up as part of a joint venture between PropertyGuru Group and Malaysia's RedBerry. PropertyGuru has over 800,000 visitors viewing more than 4 million pages monthly. With over 110,000 listings and 3,500 agents signed up, PropertyGuru gives consumers the platform to find properties for purchase, sale, rental or investment and a direct channel to search for and contact agents. An SME Tiger Award Winner for Online Business (Gold Award), PropertyGuru 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.
www.Rumah.com was founded in 2007 and is Indonesia's top property website, with over 1.2 million visitors viewing over 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 2007 to help Thai consumers find their desired properties for sale and rent in the fastest and most efficient way. There are over 1.3 million visitors viewing more than 8 million pages every month, making it one of Thailand’s top property 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.