2012 — iProperty Gets Innovative

Posted on January 6, 2012

So 2012 has arrived! I hope you all enjoyed the extended holidays and ushered in the New Year with new goals, resolutions and of course in style. Hot spots around the city center and shopping malls were filled with people gathering to do the final countdown to the New Year. The skylines were filled with bright and vibrant colorful sparks of beautiful patterns from the fire crackers and it was just indeed a truly beautiful sight to behold.

The festive season is indeed a joyous occasion – a time of family bonding and of course a time for feasting. I guess many; will be hitting the gym soon to burn off all those extra calories. I know I will.

The holidays also gave me some extra time to do some reading and I came across a book entitled Discipline Dreaming.

Written by Josh Linkner, a successful serial entrepreneur, founder of a highly successful company in the promotion’s industry, Linkner’s book outlines various processes and techniques that encourage and enable innovation among employees.

Innovation has and will always be a key fundamental to the iProperty Group. We continuously strive towards developing highly innovative products and services to meet the needs of our target market.

In today’s world, the success of any business is constantly measured, not just by revenues, but by a wide spectrum of things and being in the online industry – by brand recall, by unique visitors, by leads and of course by sales amongst many other factors.

The need to stay ahead of competitors has never been more critical and innovation is indeed the key fundamental. Linker outlines in his book that the only way to sustain long term innovation and growth is through creativity – at all levels of the organisation. And I certainly couldn’t agree more.

Disciplined Dreaming shows you how to create profitable new ideas, empower all your employees to be creative, and sustain your competitive advantage over the long term. His book outlines the whole process in five easy steps that will make creativity easy for you and your organisation.

So, for 2012, let’s get innovative and believe that it will be a great and successful year.

Time to leave our comfort zones, put on our thinking and creative caps, and explore new possibilities in a disciplined way of course.

Enjoy the weekend and Happy 2012!

Popularity: 53%

2011 – A Year of Success for iProperty

Posted on December 6, 2011

Hello December!

I don’t know about you but I feel that the last 11 months have whizzed by in a blink of an eye. But nevertheless, it’s been an amazing journey.

This year saw me become a father for the second time to beautiful baby daughter. My lovely daughter is now nearly 6 months old. I am also proud to say that my eldest daughter has been nothing short but a remarkable and caring big sister.

On the business front, 2011 has been a year of success across the iProperty Group.

2011 saw us change our name from IPGA Limited to the iProperty Group Ltd, acquire the No.1 and No.3 property portals in Indonesia, win highly acclaimed awards in Malaysia and Hong Kong, clinch the 4th place in the fastest Australian growing business by Business Review Weekly and not forgetting the birth of the region’s first comprehensive and designated portal of commercial and industrial properties, CommercialAsia.com.

We also had tremendous revenue growth across the group. Our portals in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Hong Kong continue to remain the leading and preferred property portal in their respective countries. Our significant growth has also attracted investments from France’s No.1 property portal, SeLoger.com, to the business.

The launch of our inaugural coffee table book, Malaysia Top Property Developers 2011/2012, is also something we are extremely happy about. You can grab a copy of this limited edition book at a bookstore near you soon, for only RM 99.

Needless to say that I am very proud of all that we have achieved this year. I especially commend the staff at iProperty for their passion and dedication, for without them, these numerous milestones that we achieved would not have been possible.

But I’m convinced the best is yet to come. Looking forward to the year ahead fills me with excitement.

I can assure you that 2012 will be an exciting year. We have many things lined up for you, so do stay tuned.

I also want to take this opportunity to personally thank all our consumers, customers and partners for continuously believing in us and for growing with us to achieve one milestone after another.

Have a great week.

Popularity: 71%

iProperty Group Reports Continued Strong Growth In Q3 2011

Posted on October 28, 2011

iProperty Group Ltd formerly known as IPGA Limited (ASX: IPP), the owner of Asia’s No. 1 network of property portal sites under the iProperty brand (www.iproperty.com), today released its 4C statement demonstrating the continued strong financial growth of the business. In September of 2011, the Group hit a new record number of consumers viewing its websites and now has almost 17,000 real estate agents advertising across its network.

“2011 has continued to be a great year for the Group. Our cash receipts have continued their growth and this places the business in a strong position as we look to 2012. Our engagement with agents and increasingly property developers has driven the great result in our core markets of Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Singapore” said iProperty Group CEO, Shaun Di Gregorio.

“In Malaysia we’ve extended our leadership position with more agents, property developers and property listings driving a huge growth in consumer traffic. In Indonesia we’ve made terrific progress following the acquisitions of the #1 portal rumah123 and #3 portal rumahdanproperti. We’ve doubled the number of paying agent advertisers in the last three months having signed partnership deals with the three largest franchise groups ERA, Ray White and LJ Hooker. At the same time we’ve significantly increased consumer traffic to the #1 portal rumah123. This has consolidated and extended our leadership position in Indonesia” said Di Gregorio.

“In Hong Kong we’ve made significant improvements to the consumer experience and this was recognized with being awarded ‘Property portal of the Year 2011’ by leading industry experts. Our leadership position has continued to grow with more agents, property developers, property listings and consumer traffic than any other property portal in Hong Kong. And in Singapore our approach to innovation continues to drive the growth of the business with several new initiatives recently launched. We are focused on a quality experience for consumers as iProperty.com.sg continues to be the preferred property portal in Singapore, reinforced by independent website measurement firms”.

“As we look toward 2012 we continue to focus on providing our customers with more exposure and more leads and ensuring our consumers get the best possible experience when searching for property on one of our market leading websites” added Di Gregorio.

Popularity: 44%

The Momentum Continues for the iProperty Group

Posted on October 13, 2011

Last week, everyone around the world mourned the death of Apple co-founder and technology visionary, Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs has certainly transformed the computer industry. He thought ahead and predicted what we wanted before we even had time to think of it.

I was recently browsing through the many impactful quotes that he has said through the years and the one that struck me the most was – "Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower."

This is aptly true in any industry that we operate in. It is also one that the iProperty Group strives on and one that is incorporated in our core values – we practice innovation and strive for continuous improvement whenever we can.

Our focus on innovation makes us a true leader in the industry. We will continuously endeavour to bring our consumer and customers innovative products that will further transform the property industry.

This week, I have decided to take on a different approach in my blog postings – instead of focussing on the progress in Malaysia alone, I have decided to incorporate brief snippets of the happenings in each of the countries we operate in:

Malaysia

It was all about the BUDGETS in Malaysia last week!

AFFORDABLE HOMES

Increased limit of house prices under the My First Home Scheme beginning 2012
To build 7,700 houses under the 1Malaysia People’s Housing (PR1MA) scheme in Cyberjaya, Putra Heights, Seremban, Damansara and Bukit Raja
100% stamp duty exemption on loan instruments for the purchase of houses under PR1MA
Under the Program Perumahan Rakyat, government has allocated RM443 million for the construction of 15,000 units for sale (8,000) and rent (7,000)
Allocation of RM 200 million as subsidy for 10,000 units of houses to be built by Syarikat Perumahan Negara Bhd. Each house costing RM 65,000 will be sold RM45,000 as the government will subsidize RM20,000 of the cost.
RM 40 million for the restoration and maintenance of public and private low cost housing
RM 63 million in 2012 to rehabilitate 1,270 abandoned houses

PROPERTY TAX

To curb speculation in the real estate market, Real Property Gains Tax for the first two years have been increased to 10% each year from 5% previously.
The tax regime of 5% will be imposed on the third, fourth and fifth year of disposal of an asset, so that genuine buyers are not discouraged from purchasing. There will be no tax on property disposed after the fifth year.

RETIREMENT

Tax relief up to RM6,000 for EPF and life insurance to be extended to the Private Pension Fund now known as Private Retirement Scheme.
Employers’ contribution to be increased from 12% to 13% for contributors who earn RM5,000 and below.

EDUCATION

RM1 billion for the construction, improvement and maintenance of schools, particularly to cater for the immediate needs of schools
Financial assistance of RM 100 for all secondary and primary students
Book vouchers worth RM 200 to all Malaysian students in public and private local institutions

I guess the 2012 budget, themed National Transformation Policy: Welfare for the Rakyat, Well-Being of the Nation, is focussed mainly at helping the rakyat cope with the rapidly rising cost of living.

Aside from the budget, the Malaysian team has bagged another award. For the third consecutive year, the iProperty.com Malaysia magazine has been voted #1 by A&M Magazine. The publication has gone from strength to strength and continues to play a significant role in broadening the relationship we have with property developers. Kudos to the team!

The Malaysia team also launched the inaugural ’1st Thursday’ sessions which will be held on a monthly basis. This educational and training initiative targeted specifically for agents is aimed at equipping agents with information with the latest trends in the industry, a platform to network amongst each other and an avenue to learn how to further boost their leads. So, if you are an agent and keen to find out more about this, do join the team for the next session.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Singapore

In the coming weeks, Singaporeans will be seeing 50 uniquely decorated cabs by iProperty.com Singapore roaming the streets to promote the upcoming iProperty.com Expo International Collection, which is scheduled to be held from 29 October to 30 October 2011 at the popular and iconic Sands Expo & Convention Centre.

Certainly an interesting platform to promote an event that captures attention, so please do also take this as a personal invitation to join us for the EXPO which will be open from 10am -7pm.

Aside from this, the team at Singapore also recently shared an interesting finding on “Shoebox Units – Dud or Stud? – Are shoebox units worthy investment products for those speculating in the property market?”. If you missed it, read all about the finding at http://blog.iproperty.com.sg/shoebox-units-dud-or-stud/.

Besides this, the team in Singapore has introduced a PROPERTY TREND widget on the home site to give visitors the opportunity to study recent transacted property data according to property type and time period. Partnering with StreetSine, data is collected from the most credible sources including Urban Redevelopment Authority, Singapore Land Authority, Housing & Development Board and more.

Hong Kong

CONGRATULATIONS to the gohome.com.hk team – our market leading portal in HK has just been named as “Property Portal of the Year 2011” by Marketing Magazine, one of Hong Kong’s leading trade journals for marketers! This award further confirms our number 1 ranking and market leadership and validates the hard work that the HK team has been doing.

Indonesia

The team in Indonesia is working exceptionally hard to recruit more paying agents by the yearend and have been doing a great job thus far.

We have been doing a great job thus far and I believe we can achieve greater things! Keep throwing challenges at yourselves and aspire to achieve them. ‘Challenges will make you discover things about yourself that you never really knew. They’re what make you go beyond the norm’ and this very true.

Popularity: 36%

2011 iProperty Group Annual Conference

Posted on September 21, 2011

People, Opportunity and Innovation

A total of 280 individuals from four different countries, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore, gathered under one roof for the Annual iProperty Group Conference which was held last week at the Pulai Springs Resort in Johor Bahru.

iProperty Group Photo

Needless to say, the tranquillity and serenity of the resort was transformed with their arrival. Amidst the hype and buzz of old friends catching up and new friendships being formed, the one thing that was evident was the passion and dedication portrayed by each team member. This is the glue that binds us together and one that greatly attributes towards the success of the company.

The two day conference, not only gave everyone the chance to mingle, but also the opportunity to bounce off ideas on how we can further enhance the experience of property hunters who use our website to search for their dream home and for agents who use it to list their listings.

It is via such brainstorming sessions that we are able to take a step back and put ourselves in the shoes of consumers and customers and ask ourselves the relevant questions such as what would they like? What sort of information would they require that will help them make an informed decision and etc.

The conference also gave me the opportunity to thank and recognise team members who have relentlessly and tirelessly worked towards enhancing and growing our position in the market. Congratulations to all employees who either snapped up the Account Manager of the Year, Business Development Manager of the Year or the Monthly Awards Special Recognition Award. Do keep up the good work and continue to inspire those who work with you to strive towards the same success too.

Apart from this, there were team building activities that further encapsulated our core values of being a team oriented company. The highlight of the conference was of course the annual dinner which got everyone decked in their finest outfits. I have to say that everyone looked dashingly smart. Most importantly, everyone had a good time! A lot of hidden talents were discovered too!

But don’t just take my word for it, I will let the below pictures paint you a story.

Full of passion — a trait that enables us to succeed in all we do while having fun