Ravi Chandran
PropertyGuru Group, on 4th April unveiled a brand refresh, with an invitation to home seekers to ‘Look Forward To Home’. The Group said this refresh builds on PropertyGuru’s 10-year industry experience and technology heritage and marks a new phase in the its transformation journey from a regional property media powerhouse to a high-growth technology company.
The Group’s revamp included changes to its websites and mobile apps, as well as a new brand identity. The Group explained that the changes collectively bring to life PropertyGuru’s role as a trusted advisor to home seekers and signal the advent of a new era of customer experience in the property sector.
The new websites and mobile apps, leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) to make every property search a highly personalised and intuitive experience. Underpinning this are machine learning algorithms, which have been trained to recognise behavioural cues to determine the kind of properties a user is looking for and the content they are likely to be interested in. As PropertyGuru’s AI-powered recommendation engine learns more about each user’s unique needs and preferences, solutions will increasingly become tailored, smarter, and more accurate.
PropertyGuru Group Chief Executive Officer, Hari V. Krishnan, said, “Millions in Southeast Asia have searched and found their homes with us. That’s both a privilege and a responsibility. As we look forward to the next decade, we recognise that people not only want the home finding and buying processes to be simpler and faster, but also expect highly-customised solutions to meet their needs and challenges.”
Hari added: “With our revamped websites and apps, the more you use our platform, the more it becomes your platform. The experience for every user will be unique, as we learn more about their preferences. As such, this brand refresh marks PropertyGuru’s transformation into a full-fledged tech brand.”
PropertyGuru Group Chief Marketing Officer, Bjorn Sprengers said, “People’s expectations of exceptional user experience have been shaped in recent years by great technology brands. We felt that it was time for the property industry to catch up.”
“‘Look Forward To Home’ embodies the aspiration of all home seekers in Asia – that of finding and owning their very own home. Our updated brand identity, especially our new logo, takes inspiration from where we’ve been, and boldly signifies where we’re heading as a brand,” he added.
The Group’s revamp to benefit home seekers comes at a time when private residential property saw the highest quarterly increase in 8 years. The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) revealed this in its flash estimate of the price index for private residential property for 1st Quarter 2018.
Overall, the private residential property index increased 4.3 points from 138.7 points in 4th Quarter 2017 to 143.0 points in 1st Quarter 2018. This represents an increase of 3.1%, compared to the 0.8% increase in the previous quarter.
The positive residential property market sentiments is further reflected in the largest collective sale in more than 10 years – with the sale of Pacific Mansion for S$980 million. This sale marked the largest sale since Farrer Court was divested at $1.34 billion in 2007.
Even the the recent hike to the top marginal rate for buyer’s stamp duty (BSD) is not expected to dent the market optimism. Augustine Tan, president of the Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore (Redas), said the new revised BSD “may add some friction to transaction volumes as buyers remain price-sensitive (but) it is unlikely to derail the recovery (of the property market).”
https://www.icompareloan.com/resources/fed-interest-rates-hike-impact-loans/
However, in an environment of rising interest rates, buyers of investment properties should exercise more caution with the type of mortgage loan they require to buy their private residential property. You could save thousands if you are guided by an experienced mortgage broker.
