Singapore’s PropertyGuru plans to acquire rival platforms in Malaysia and Thailand in a bid to cement its position as Southeast Asia’s dominant online housing marketplace. The deal is also the latest to show how Southeast Asia’s digital start-ups and internet economies have garnered global attention. The real estate technology portal said on Monday it will buy all of the shares in the units of Australia’s REA Group that run competing platforms iProperty.com.my and Brickz.my in Malaysia, as well as thinkofliving.com and Prakard.com in Thailand. Under the deal, the Australian Stock Exchange-listed REA Group will receive 18% equity in the PropertyGuru Group and appoint a board director. PropertyGuru’s bid to dominate Southeast Asia’s online real estate space comes amid a swell of consolidation among the region’s big online players.
PropertyGuru’s announcement has echoes of Grab’s and Gojek’s recent deals in that growth is being sought—and Southeast Asia’s smartphone-tethered consumers are being pursued—via acquisitions. The region’s importance to digital companies is widely recognized. According to research by Google, Temasek and Bain & Co., the gross merchandise value of Southeast Asia’s internet economy is expected to grow threefold, to USD 300 billion, in the five years to 2025. PropertyGuru is also set to ride house-buying waves in certain Asian markets. Despite the pandemic-triggered global economic downturn, the residential real estate markets in Singapore and other cities have been heating up. In Singapore, property buyers have been taking advantage of low-interest rates to purchase homes, with many of them eyeing real estate as a haven investment. The trend is contributing to steadily increasing apartment prices. Despite all the uncertainties brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic over the past year, PropertyGuru said its platform is experiencing growth in the number of monthly visits, to 35 million regionally. The start-up says it offers information on more than 2.8 million homes across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam.