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.

A Tip For Property Speculators

Ask any friends or relatives in Singapore, and at least one of them would tell you that they (or someone they know) have made lots of money from properties. I personally know a friend of a friend who made substantial money from government-subsidized HDB flats, and then went on to own 2 condominiums from the profits of selling the flats. Even Singapore property agents are having a field day, thanks to investors flipping properties.

Based on data from URA, Singapore real estate prices have appreciated significantly in 2010. Although this is not surprising since Singapore real estate and property prices will almost definitely trend up in the long-term due to rising population, tight land space, influx of immigrants and of course, inflation.

The biggest problem for any property investor or speculator is the near impossiblity of trying to time the property market ...still there's more certainty than trying to predict the direction of the SGX stock market though.

At the height of the current global financial crisis, caused by U.S sub-prime problems, Singapore property prices fell an average 30 per cent at the end of 2008 alone. Since then, the prices have risen back up and have infact, surpassed the previous peaks.

Overnight policy changes by the government are also another uncertainty to consider, like the recent cooling measures to implement RPGT and minimum downpayment increase to 30 per cent. Property analysts expect demand to fall as much as 20 per cent this year just because of these moves.

Hence, if you are going to speculate in Singapore property and real estate, or properties anywhere in the world for that matter, always make sure that you have enough reserves to tide you through tough times and sudden policy changes.

iProperty - Singapore Property For Sale / Rent

iProperty is an online Singapore real estate classifieds where you can find residential, commercial and industrial property for rent or for sale. Some of the popular searches on iProperty are for HDB flats, private apartments and office space.

Apart from property listings, there are useful articles and information like HDB guidelines, mortgage calculator and home interest rates. You can also browse their Singapore Condo directory for all the condominiums ever built in Singapore.

iProperty is listed on the Australian stock exchange and they aspire to be the leading property classifieds in Asia.