03 July, 2011

HomeGuru Malaysia vs. iProperty Malaysia

It looks like the battle of the property portals in Singapore, between PropertyGuru and iProperty, has now spilled over the causeway into Malaysia. However, All Property Media has given it a different brand here, calling it HomeGuru - a joint-venture with Redberry (Malaysia).

The competition has so far resulted in some consolidation, as a result of iProperty snapping up ThinkProperty, while HomeGuru bought Fullhouse. Other property portals in the country are StarProperty, Propwall, and of course, the free and popular Mudah.my.

The core revenue for these property portals come from the listing fees paid by property agents. And then there is some income from display ads, and also from marketing projects for property developers. Listing is mostly free for ads posted by the public.

For now, it remains to be seen how HomeGuru intends to win market share from the incumbent, iProperty - which has a very established brand in the country. The battle is expected to be intense, infact, both portals are already suing each other over the use of the brand "HomeGuru".

With less than a year in the market, it's hard to tell who will emerge the victor. Currently, HomeGuru is expanding their staff size at their Bangsar South City office. The new kid on the block has also boasted of having over 50,000 listings of Malaysia property for sale and rent on their site.