Singapore – The digital property marketplace in SEA, PropertyGuru Group, has successfully completed the acquisition of digital property advertising firm iProperty Malaysia and real estate portal thinkofliving Thailand.
PropertyGuru, which has a presence across Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand, empowers property seekers with more than 2.8 million real estate listings, in-depth insights, and solutions that enable them to make confident property decisions.
With the acquisition, PropertyGuru will now be owning all of the shares in global digital firm REA Group’s entities in Malaysia and Thailand, which include Malaysia’s iProperty and Brickz, and Thailand’s thinkofliving and Prakard. In exchange, REA now has an approximate 18%2 equity interest in PropertyGuru.
Furthermore, the acquisition will be accelerating PropertyGuru’s ambition of building SEA’s property Trust Platform, a platform that connects the region’s property markets into an efficient ecosystem that builds trusted relationships between agents, consumers, developers, valuers, and banks by driving greater transparency and efficiency.
iProperty Malaysia and thinkofliving will be continuing to operate separately, and in the coming months, PropertyGuru will be working to ensure the smooth integration of the businesses while delivering the same market-leading value and services to property seekers, agents, and developers. This will include leveraging collective strengths in technology, innovation, and data to offer consumers access to information and insights to support their homeownership aspirations in the region.
Hari V. Krishnan, PropertyGuru’s chief executive officer and managing director, commented that they are delighted to bring two strong businesses into the group, and together, PropertyGuru believes that they are better positioned to deliver even more innovation to property seekers, equipping them with the insights they need to make confident decisions.
“By combining PropertyGuru’s strengths in technology and proprietary data with iProperty.com.my’s footprint and relationships with developers and agents, we can digitize the Malaysian property ecosystem and accelerate our goal of creating Southeast Asia’s property Trust Platform. We look forward to working together to serve property consumer preferences in Southeast Asia,” said Krishnan.
Meanwhile, Owen Wilson, the chief executive officer of REA Group, said that the completion of this transaction creates the most compelling PropTech group in Southeast Asia.
“As the digitization of the property market continues to accelerate across the region, PropertyGuru is perfectly placed to build on its leadership position and capture future growth opportunities. We look forward to being part of this exciting journey,” said Wilson.
PropertyGuru also said that coupled with its market leadership across the region’s five major markets, the group will be positioned to capture the significant opportunities in the region, which deems to become the fourth-largest economy in the world by 2030.
