One of the primary objective of men since the beginning of time is to find shelter for himself and for his loved ones. Despite the changes and evolution throughout humanity, shelter still remains a vital component of survival needed by all.
Before the age of the internet, everything seemed a bit more complex. Looking back now, everything was a bit more difficult and time consuming.
It was common for people to consume a large amount of their time searching for the right house for their families; a house that perfectly fits with the picture created at the back of their mind. People often faced a lot of difficulty and energy trying to find the house of their dreams.
But, with the evolution of web portals like iProperty Group, which is an online real estate web portal things have become much easier. Now, buyers don’t have to worry about finding interested sellers. Nor does the seller have to struggle to find desirable buyers. The main purpose of iproperty is to make this connecting between the buyer and the seller much easier and much more efficient.
IProperty
IProperty Group Ltd. is an online property web portal. Its job is to operate property portals and provide advertisers with appropriate advertising solution. The headquarters of IProperty Group is in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It also has established markets in the regions of Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Philippines, Thailand, and Macau. The main job of IProperty Group is to develop internet-based real estate portals. In addition, IProperty also provides property exposition and advertising activities of associated offline properties.
IProperty Group is also listed among the countries in the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) and is the leading real estate portal that delivers high-quality real estate related services and projects across Southeast Asia. IProperty had been serving more than 30,000 property agents and around 400 developers in South East Asia.
FOUNDERS OF IPROPERTY:
IProperty was founded by the one of the world leading entrepreneur Patrick Grove in 2007.
Patrick Grove is a major shareholder, Chairman, and the group CEO of Catcha Group. Patrick Grove had successfully built, co-founded, and publically listed several highly successful media and internet based businesses in Asia over the period of past 10 years. He is Chartered Accountant and a member of Chartered Accountants of Australia and holds a degree of Bachelors in Commerce from University of Sydney, Australia.
BEGINNING AND THE HISTORY:
According to the Georg Chmiel, IProperty has been around since 2003 but was internationally launched in 2007. It is the largest online property portal with more than 80% real estate agent’s market share in Malaysia, approx. 70% in Hong Kong, and around 45% in Thailand and Indonesia. IProperty has 90% of estate agents and around 80% of developers signed in Malaysia, which clearly shows their dominance in the real estate online market around South East Asia.
The purpose of IProperty is to increase the efficiency of property sales and to increase the required time to complete a deal.
In 2015, REA group completed the acquisition of IProperty Group Malaysia in a deal which proved great value for everyone involved in online property marketing business. REA Group is an Australian real estate website. Prior to this acquisition, REA Group had about 22.7 % of IProperty and decided to buy the rest with this acquisition.
OPERATING COUNTRIES:
IProperty is operating in 8 major countries of SouthEast Asia under different brand names.
- iProperty.com and thinkproperty.my operates in Malaysia.
- In Indonesia, it operates under the names of RumahdanProperti.com and rumah123.com.
- The operating online portals of IProperty Group in Hong Kong are GoHome.com.hk and Squarefoot.com.hk. An additional two online portals operate in the region of Hong Kong under the names of Office18.com and House18.com.
- The portal of Vproperty.com is used in Macau
- The portal of iproperty.com in India
- The portal iproperty.com also works in the region around the Philippines.
IPROPERTY COMPETITORS:
The concept of online property portals has significantly evolved over the past few years. Despite the fact that iProperty Group is leading this evolutionary process in SouthEast Asia, there still are some competitors who pose a serious threat to their success. These competitors distribute the online traffic, and as a result, a lesser amount of traffic diverges towards iProperty website than what it could have been without them.
The major competitors of iProperty are companies like Starproperty, PropertyGuru, and several more. But iProperty Group had been leading their competitors in aspects of revenue, the number of employees, and in their Facebook following.
The following tables show the competition iProperty had to face in the region of South East Asia.
Revenue
| Company | Estimated Revenue |
| iProperty Group | $21.8M |
| Starproperty | $19 M |
| PropertyGuru | $1 M |
Facebook Following
| Company | Facebook Following |
| iProperty Group | 105,173 |
| Starproperty | 46,581 |
| PropertyGuru | 38,786 |
There are some aspects in which iProperty competitors, such as PropertyGuru, are ahead. But overall, iProperty Group is leading the race to conquer to online real estate market.
Number of Acquisition
| Company | Acquisition |
| PropertyGuru | 4 |
| iProperty | 2 |
They have to work really hard to get here, and there is no doubt that now that they are on top of online property business they have to work even harder to stay on top and keep on dominating their competitors.
REA Group Acquisition:
The iProperty Group after being acquired by the REA Group in 2016, replaced its CEO. The new owners of iProperty placed Georg Chmeil as its Chief Executive Officer.
Georg Chmeil:
Before taking on the role as the CEO of Asia’s leading real estate advertising portal he was living in Sydney and used to work for REA Group. He was holding the position of Chief Financial Officer of REA Group. According to iProperty Group statement, he was offered a salary of $500,000 to join as CEO of iProperty Group.
Timeline of iProperty:
The timeline of iProperty Group mainly consists of two parts. One before being acquired by the REA Group of Companies and the other after being acquired by them. This acquisition brought with it quite a few changes. Their approach towards the business changed a lot as the men who are now in charge have a completely different mindset from the one who were controlling iProperty before.
It appears that the REA group acquisition of iProperty group was a big step for both the companies. Under REA group, the iProperty have improved and is looking really solid at this moment.
Conclusion:
The companies like the iProperty Group have been made to make the day to day life of people easy. In the countries iProperty is currently operating in, it has influenced large numbers of estate agents and developers to work with them and help make this properties dealings business easier and efficient.