Ravi Chandran
PropNex ups its Proptech service offerings by acquisitioning Ovvy, a technology platform that connects service providers to consumers
PropNex Group announced in early April that it is further venturing into the proptech space with its proposed acquisition of a 70% stake in Ovvy – The People Marketplace. Ovvy is a technology platform that connects service providers to consumers.
This acquisition expands the Group’s foray into proptech, through the provision of an additional technology platform for PropNex and its salespersons to render further value-added real estate services to better serve our clients and the general public.
Ovvy marketplace for services is available through a mobile platform and provides a one-stop reliable comprehensive ecosystem which connects consumers with trusted merchants and daily service providers. PropNex salespersons will be able to provide enhanced value-add to their clients a host of services via Ovvy’s hundreds of merchants that are currently on the platform. Consumers can post a job (eg. air-conditioning repair services), get offers, filter through merchants and “book-and-pay” merchants most suited for their needs.
Additionally, it allows merchants to showcase their profile effectively in the digital media realm, get notifications when jobs are posted in their categories, and extend their booking system to a digital platform if they do not already possess one internally.
Proptech service offerings upgraded to enhance real-time connectivity among our salespersons and their clients
Mr. Ismail Gafoor, co-founder, Executive Chairman and CEO of PropNex, said: “The Group is constantly upgrading our technological capabilities and now employs online platforms to further enhance real-time connectivity among our salespersons and their clients.”
“We believe with this acquisition, PropNex salespersons can provide a more holistic support for their clients, landlords, tenants and home investors especially on the after-service care and maintenance of their clients’ investments. Through technology, we intend to stay ahead of the curve in terms of innovation and transform the digital landscape in the real estate industry for the betterment of our salesforce.”
Real estate companies have ramped up their Proptech investment in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, finds a survey of some of the biggest property players in Asia. The survey by independent news source Mingtiandi, in collaboration with technology company Yardi Systems, finds 70 percent of real estate companies are scaling up their Proptech investment.
The results of the survey, Tech adoption in Asian real estate, builds on a similar report from Mingtiandi in 2017. Proptech is the abbreviation of Property Technology.
“Our latest survey results unearth a major shift towards proptech adoption in our region,” says Yardi’s Regional Director, Bernie Devine.
“Change was underway well before 2020, but COVID-19 has heightened the urgency and amplified the risks of inaction.”
Proptech investment will deliver billions-of-dollars in value to real estate sector
Proptech – innovative technology that reimagines property’s core processes and business models – is turning real estate on its head. Metaprop, one of the world’s largest early-stage proptech venture capital firm, predicts that proptech innovation will deliver $205 billion of new value to the global real estate industry over the next five years alone.
Mr Paul Ho, chief officer at iCompareLoan, said: “PropNex’s enhancement of its Proptech service offerings is not only good, but also necessary. In this new landscape where AI can do what human agents traditionally did, agents must upgrade or die.”
He believes that agents must adopt technology and automate their workflow or risk being replaced by automation, technical tools and robot property agents. Mr Ho said that iCompareLoan’s Home Loan Report is one such tool agents can make use of to augment their services.
The Home Loan Report tool is a Singapore’s first one-of-a-kind analysis platform that provides latest updates of detailed loan packages and helps property agents, financial advisors and mortgage brokers to analyse home loan packages for their clients and give unbiased home loan / commercial loan analysis for their property buyers and home owners.
As buyers of the future grow more discerning, agents cannot afford to just rely on their personality or their experience to attract clients. Buyers and sellers of the future will increasingly rely on agents to have knowledge on property finance calculations and this is where the Home Loan report comes in.
This trademarked tool is a one-stop solution that can help deliver a detailed home loan report to property agents in 3 minutes flat.
