Hello again, Agent Partners! We’re due for our last edition for 2021 before we kick start the festive celebrations! 

Looking back on our previous article When and Where to Focus Your Listings in November, we saw that Sunday had the highest traffic and 10AM-5PM was the most popular time of the day for property seekers.  

So, what’s in store for December?  

When to Focus Your Listings 

Interestingly, property search has gained significant increase on weekdays compared to weekends with Tuesdays as the clear winner with the highest traffic for property search in November.  

Thursdays and the weekends recorded mid-level volume of searches during the same period, while all the other days of the week saw relatively high search volumes. 

Looking at the most active time of the day for property seekers, below graph shows that website traffic for November begins at 8AM, starts to peak at 9AM and remains consistent until 12AM. Don’t miss out on up to 8X more exposure with Turbo or schedule your listings on Auto-Repost so you don’t miss out on the high traffic!  

Where to Focus Your Listings 

Commercial Listings  

When we look at commercial listings, D01-08 and D12-14 continue to be popular districts – reaping in the highest volume of listing views on PropertyGuru Singapore. 

However, when we look at the market gap, D19-20 has the largest, with D12-14 and D25-28 following very closely behind. 

Residential Listings 

When we look at Residential Listings, D19-20 is always a hot contender in terms of popularity. What’s worthwhile to note is that D01-08 has been picking up interest lately too! 

In terms of a market gap, D22-24 takes the lead with D25-28 following closely behind. D17-18 and D19–20 also seem to be experiencing a larger market gap this month. 

Let’s take a closer look at parts of Singapore through Market Insider on AgentNet.  

Given that the districts with the largest market gap – D22-24 and D25-28 have been featured in last month’s article, let’s take a look at the next 2 contenders with biggest market gap – D17-18 and D19-20. 

If we look at condos for sale in this part of Singapore, it looks like the median PSF is just below S$1,000 for the top project, The Minton. 

As for HDB towns in the same part of Singapore, we see a significantly lower median PSF with over 7X the volume of transactions, which is unsurprising given the lower entry price!  

Check out Market Insights, under AgentNet for our full suite of data tools to empower you with the most relevant and timely market data to angle your presentation and close your deal with your clients!   

Thank you for joining us for this edition, do stay tuned for the next one!  

Wishing you a safe and joyful holiday season! 

Being a better partner for you, 
PropertyGuru Team

We have been living in a “new normal” for a while now, and while some of us are getting accustomed to it, some of us are wishing extra hard for things to go back to the days before COVID-19 plagued the globe. 

With travel lanes and borders opening up, there seems to be a little glimmer of hope somewhere at the end of the tunnel. So, how do you think this would have impacted your property seekers?

When to Focus Your Listing

Property seekers’ traffic took a switch in the month of October with most of the weekdays taking a relatively slow pace, but then peaks upwards from Friday to Sunday. 

While the behaviour on the days of the week might’ve changed, the times of the day remains the same. We see an upward trend from 8AM that remains relatively strong till 11PM. 

Where to Focus Your Listings

Commercial Listings

When we zoom into commercial listings, City & South West D01-08 and Balestier/Geylang D12-14 still continue to hold strong demand in the market. However, it seems interest in other districts have tapered down a bit – which might indicate offices are looking forward to reopening their premises soon. 

However, looking at the market gap, Serangoon/Thomson D19-20 and East Coast D15-16 seem to be areas that need more listings to meet market demand. 

Residential Listings

For residential listings, Serangoon/Thomson D19-20 are a popular choice amongst homebuyers – with an increasing interest in City & South West D01-08. (D19-20 seems to be a great area to focus your listings on for both residential and commercial listings.)

The market gap for Serangoon/Thomson (D19-20) remains substantial, but the one that takes top prize is West D22-24 with North (D25-28) following closely behind.

So, let’s take a closer look at those parts of Singapore through Market Insider on AgentNet. 

If we look at condos for sale in those parts of Singapore, it looks looks to be going at a median PSF of under S$1K and the top project is the classic condominium just 3 minutes from Chinese Garden MRT – Parc Oasis. 

If we were to explore the HDB towns of the same parts of Singapore, we can see a significantly lower median PSF, with over 10x the quantity of transactions. This isn’t surprising, as there’s plenty of movement around Punggol. 

Get more in-depth info right within your AgentNet now – and receive exclusive and invaluable insights to boost your knowledge and credibility. 

We hope you’ve found this piece useful and look forward to updating you again next month! Till then, continue to stay safe. 

Being a better partner for you,
PropertyGuru Team

With the number of COVID cases on the rise on our little island, there are some different trains of thought – some of us see this as part of transitioning from a pandemic to an endemic, whilst some of us are being extra careful about going out. 

Nevertheless, thanks to constantly changing regulations, it no doubt impacts your viewings one way or another. However, let’s take a look at the data and how your property seekers have been in and how you should maximise your listings in October!

When to Focus Your Listings

Probably driven by erratic changes – with some going back to office and some not, your property seekers’ behaviour shifted significantly as well. 

From the looks of it, traffic looked very consistent between Sunday to Wednesday, with Wednesday peaking and surpassing the usual weekend crowd. However, one thing remains consistent – Friday is rest day for your clients. (Or maybe they’re busy at viewings with you!)

The time of the day remains consistent as well – with traffic picking up steadily through 8AM till 12AM. (Yes, it seems people still scroll for properties till midnight!)

Where to Focus Your Listings

Commercial Listings

It’s should come as no surprise – City & South West (D01-08) continue to be highly popular in commercial listing views, with Balestier/Geylang (D12-14) taking a modest 2nd position. 

However, one thing that’s interesting is the increase in interest in the more residential districts like West (D22-24) and North (D25-28). And this is consistent with the market gaps identified – with plenty of them coming from the residential districts. 

It seems as we shift into this ‘new normal’, many companies are considering shifting to areas outside the CBD. 

Residential Listings 

For residential listings, Serangoon/Thomson (D19-20) continues to be a popular choice with significant interest picking up in City & South West (D01-08).

Thee market gap for residential listings are over quite a few districts! If you look at it, it covers a large majority of Singapore, with West (D22-24) taking the lead. 

That’s it for this month’s update, we hope you found it useful.

Get more data to help with your prospecting, research before viewing and more – right within your AgentNet’s Market Insights! 

You can also sign up for any of our upcoming Partner Training to learn more nifty ways to maximise your data tools on PropertyGuru. 

Being a better partner for you,
PropertyGuru Team

Believe it or not – we’re already reaching the last quarter of 2021 and COVID still very much dominates our daily lives. As Singapore went through even more developments in the last month, how do you think your property seekers’ behaviours developed? 

When to Focus Your Listings

In total contrast with last month, property seekers have moved their viewing days toward Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, with Friday taking a slight dip. 

This could be attributed to some companies transitioning their workforce back into office spaces. 

Time of the day remains consistent – so, don’t forget to schedule your Auto-Repost or Auto-Boost during those timings to capture your audience!

Where to Focus Your Listings

Commercial Listings

When we look at commercial listings, D01-08 and D12-14 continue to be popular districts – reaping in the highest view volumes on PropertyGuru Singapore. 

However, when we look at the market gap – D19-20 has the largest, with D15-16 following very closely behind. 

Residential Listings

Whenever we look at Residential Listings, D19-20 is always a hot contender in terms of popularity. What’s worthwhile to note is that D01-08 has been picking up interest lately too! 

In terms of a market gap though, D22-24 take the lead with D25-28 following behind. D11,21 also seems to be experiencing a larger market gap this month! 

There’s tonnes more data that you can empower yourself with, so you can do the best prospecting, research and more – all available within your AgentNet!

Be sure to check it out now – all packages enjoy complimentary full access till 30 September 2021! 

Being a better partner for you, 
PropertyGuru Team

Dear Partner,

Staying true to our commitment to growing responsibly together with you through all market conditions, PropertyGuru has continued to deliver strong ROI, enhanced value and support to our Agent Partners. We are grateful to be your key partner in closing home sales, which recorded S$32.9 billion in H1 2021.

We understand that as your key partner in the Singapore market, it is our responsibility to continually add value to your business, especially in a strong 2021 market with residential investments increasing by 96.4% QoQ in Q2 2021. It is with great pride that I share that PropertyGuru Singapore has delivered year-on-year success to our agent community by:

• Increasing customer traffic by 13.04% (H1 2021 vs H2 2020)
• Increasing leads generated by 29.4% (monthly average leads generated in 2021 vs 2020)
• Lowering cost-per-lead by 32% to S$2.08 in 2021 from S$2.74 in 2020 (averaged across all package tiers comparing)

On top of the strong market presence, we have relentlessly provided for our agents, we have also rolled out several initiatives, that deepen PropertyGuru’s commitment to our partnership, including:

• PropertyGuru DataSense (Insights) – a suite of powerful data tools that help you gain valuable insights to strategise your efforts, prospect better and close faster. Each tool has been designed and continuously improved upon based on feedback from Agent Partners like yourself.
• PropertyGuru Partner360 – a collection of value-added services and perks like Partner360 Rewards, PropertyGuru Finance, and more.
• S$700,000 in COVID-19 Relief Measures – as your business partner, we supported the agent community through multiple rounds of COVID-19 relief measures, with the aim to support you through the unprecedented times of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

As we move forward into tomorrow together, with optimism of a bullish market and vigilance to take on the future – it is our commitment to continuously innovate and exceed expectations as your trusted partner.

We understand different agents have different needs. We have listened to Agent Partners about maintaining the accessibility of basic packages, whilst still equipping packages with powerful tools and entitlements to keep more seasoned agents competitive. We have also kept costs stable since 2019 – especially in light of the market situation in 2020.

As with any business, we do periodic reviews, and effective from 1st October 2021, we are implementing a revision of our existing agent packages and entitlements with corresponding pricing:

• Our Standard package remains accessible with no price change but powered up with basic data tools.
• Advance, Premier and Business packages are powered up with enhanced data tools, Concurrent listings and Ad Credits with a weighted average price adjustment of 15%.

For more details, please refer to the updated 1 October 2021 price and entitlements list appended at the end of this note.

It is important to us that success remains accessible to all agents in the industry, therefore these updates come with the following offers:

• If you’re an existing customer and your account expiry date is:
  • Between 1 Sep 2021 to 31 Oct 2021 – you may enjoy the current pricing when you renew your subscription by 30 Sep 2021, plus receive up to S$650 CapitaLand vouchers if you choose to upgrade your package during renewal.
  • On or after 1 Nov 2021 – you may enjoy the current pricing by upgrading your package to the next tier by 30 Sep 2021, plus receive up to S$650 CapitaLand vouchers too.
    
    Promotion ends 30 Sep 2021, 23:59hrs. T&Cs apply.
• If you’re a new agent joining our platform,
  • Our Standard package remains accessible to you at no price change.
  • If you are looking at a higher tier subscription, you can consider our one-time introductory discount of S$700 off the Advance package. 

New and existing customers may also consider taking up interest-free monthly instalments with our panel of strategic bank partners.

If you should have any questions or concerns about this update, please do not hesitate to reach out to us at (+65) 6238 5971 or custcare@propertyguru.com.sg.

We at PropertyGuru are grateful to be able to be part of your journey together with you and hope we will continue being a valued partner by your side.

Sincerely Yours,

Dr Tan Tee Khoon 
Country Manager, PropertyGuru Singapore 

As your key partner in Singapore’s real estate eco-system, it remains our commitment to our agent partners that we grow responsibly together with you, through all market conditions. As we periodically review our subscription packages, we heard your feedback and requests that our basic packages remain accessible whilst at the same time add value for agent partners and equip you with elevated tools to stay competitive.

Delivering with You in A Strong Market

We’re happy to have been your partner through the past year, during a time that has defied all predictions. Even through the pandemic, Singapore’s property market proved resilient and continues to remain bullish. Market sentiment is expected to remain strong as pandemic restrictions are eased and Singapore is the first South-east Asian nation to enter “new normal”.

Bringing You the Most Traffic and Leads in Singapore: +29% More Leads in 2021

During the past year, more than ever, we have come to recognise how critically important it is that we strengthen our partnership with you and our service offerings to ensure you close as many deals as possible. We’re proud to say that, despite the odds, PropertyGuru has continued to deliver better year-on-year results, bringing you the most traffic and leads for you to improve your ROI.

Supporting Our Agent Partners Through COVID-19 with S$700,000 Relief Measures

As history will no doubt record, we’ve all experienced major changes during such unprecedented times brought about by the global COVID-19 pandemic. As your trusted business partner, we readily contributed ~S$700,000 through multiple rounds of COVID-19 relief measures, to support our valued agent partners through the tough times.

Find out more: COVID-19 Relief Measures (18 Mar 2020) | Circuit Breaker Relief Initiative (13 Apr 2020) | Enhanced COVID-19 Relief Initiative (30 Apr 2020)

Being a Part of Tomorrow with You

Getting You Ready for Pent-up Demand

As we move forward into tomorrow, experts and analysis are looking forward to our market’s continuous resilience and increased demand.

You can find more info in our latest PropertyGuru Singapore Property Market Index Q3 2021!

Catering to Every Stage of Your Career

As your business partner, we understand that different agents have different needs at different stages of your career.

Keeping Success Accessible to Everyone

As your partner, your success means everything to us – we know not everyone is a top 1000 producer, and about 1 in 3 of our agent partners need an accessible package. So, we want to ensure that an affordable option (that barely costs as much as your commission from one sale) continues to be available to everyone!

Updated Agent Packages Effective 1 October 2021

Delivering you better value with elevated packages, Data PowerUps and Value Adds, these are our updated agent packages, effective 1 October 2021:

You can view our previous packages here.

Renew or Upgrade Your Subscription by 30 Sep 2021 to Lock In Current Prices and More!

If your account expiry date is:

• Between 1 Sep 2021 to 31 Oct 2021 – you may enjoy the current pricing when you renew your subscription by 30 Sep 2021. What’s more – receive up to S$650 CapitaLand vouchers if you choose to upgrade your package during renewal!
• On or after 1 Nov 2021 – you may enjoy the current pricing by upgrading your package to the next tier by 30 Sep 2021. You will receive up to S$650 CapitaLand vouchers too!

Contact your Account Manager for more details. Promotion ends 30 Sep 2021, 23:59hrs. T&Cs apply.

Value Adding to Your Package with Enhanced Data

Data tools help you gain valuable insights to strategise your efforts, prospect better and close faster. As we continue our commitment to being a better partner for you, your updated packages not only come with all the performance and leads we’ve been bringing – but are now also powered up with our all new and powerful PropertyGuru DataSense (Insights).

These new and enhanced entitlements were created with the aim to help you maximise your investment with us and deliver greater efficiency and closings for you.

Launching Soon on 7 Sep 2021: Explorer

This nifty new PropertyGuru DataSense (Insights) tool combines our proprietary consumer demand data with market supply data, and grants you exclusive access to a combination of insights no one else has! It’s designed to aid you during meetings with your prospective buyers, by giving you fast access to data with the flexibility to compare and contrast property data.

Free Trial to all data tools EXTENDED till 30 Sep 2021!

Because we want you to get more time to use the tools and see which ones best suit your needs, all agent partners (regardless of package tier) get full access to all data tools on PropertyGuru DataSense (Insights) till 30 September 2021!

Giving You 360° of Service, Support and Value

Enjoy More Benefits in your Package with Partner360 Suite of Rewards and Value Offerings

Staying true to our Partner360 promise to deliver better products and solutions to serve our agent partners, your agent package also entitles you to the following:

Find out more about Partner360 for Agent Partners and maximise everything PropertyGuru has for you!

We at PropertyGuru are grateful to be able to be part of your journey together with you and hope we will continue being a valued partner by your side.

With these updates, Dr Tan Tee Khoon, our Country Manager has penned a personal message to everyone in the agent community and you can read it here.

If you should have any questions, comments or feedback, we want to hear from you! You can also reach out to any of your agency’s dedicated Account Managers, or send our friendly Customer Service team an email at custcare@propertyguru.com.sg.

Being a better partner for you,
PropertyGuru Team

Exemplifying our Partner360 commitment to continuously improve our products and services to you better, we’re excited to share some exciting news with you!

Starting 4 August 2021, all Advance, Premier and Business package Agent Partners can experience the NEW Agent Profile with improved appearance, additional features and listing information to elevate your personal branding and attract more leads for your business.

3 Ways Your New Agent Profile Elevates Your Personal Brand

With the new Agent Profile, agent partners can experience these benefits:

Here’s how it looks to your new potential client:

Update Your Agent Profile To Attract More Leads

Based on research conducted with property sellers and agents, experience and area of expertise are key factors for sellers to consider where choosing the right agent to help them market and sell their properties.

With that in mind, your NEW Agent Profile now comes with more features and information to allow you to market yourself more effectively to prospective buyers and sellers.

Did you hear about Agent Academy Certifications?

Your new and improved Agent Profile comes with an Agent Academy Certification badge that will automatically show-up and show-off your credibility and skills – once you’ve completed required certified courses at PropertyGuru Partner360 Academy! Find out more about how you can enhance your personal brand and get more leads with your agent profile.

To update your Agent Profile, follow these steps:

With the goal to help you improve your personal branding to grow your business and attract more leads, why not try out the enhanced features on your NEW Agent Profile right away!

Being a better partner for you,
PropertyGuru Team

With Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) taking effect from 22 July, the daily lives of Singaporeans have taken yet another shift.

With working from home as a default, dining out prohibited and more – let’s see how property seekers might’ve changed during this time.

When to Focus Your Listings

Almost in total contrast from our previous month, property seekers have shifted their property browsing habits significantly.

Last month, Tuesdays to Saturdays saw more property seekers viewing your listings – and they took a break on Sunday and Monday.

However, when it came to the time of the day, their trend remains consistent; with traffic picking up from 8AM onwards, all the way till 12AM.

Where to Focus Your Listings

Commercial Listings

When we zoom into commercial listings, City & South West (D01-08) continue to champion as the most popular region of Singapore.

However, looking at the market gaps – it seems that practically all the districts have potential as interest exceed listing supply. This could be driven by the fact that more and more companies are giving their workers permanent work-from-home options and they might be exploring alternative office spaces instead.

Residential Listings

Residential listings took a huge change!

Previously Serangoon/Thomson (D19-20) was always a hot favourite – but it seems property seekers are looking at more central locations now at City & South West (D01-08) and Orchard/Holland (D09-10)!

This could be driven by the fact that there’s a renewed and added importance in one’s home these days. Or it could simply be because there is so much buzz around GCBs being snapped up, that people are checking them out!

However, when we look at the market gap – districts 17 to 28 continue to have larger gaps and require more supply in!  

Want even more data? Check out ‘Insights’ in your AgentNet now!

Psst! All Agent Partners get full access to all our new and awesome data tools from now till 31 August 2021. Don’t miss out!

Being a better partner for you,
PropertyGuru Team

Despite the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, Singapore’s real estate market has continuously proven to be resilient and remains strong and intact.  

Demand for homes continue to grow with evolving work from home arrangements and a delay of build-to-order projects – keeping the landscape as competitive as ever for the real estate agent. In this new normal where listings are aplenty and viewing restrictions are to be expected, how do you grab the attention of home buyers and give them the confidence they need as they are browsing for a potential home? 

If you feel like your current approach in getting visibility might be getting stale, Turbo is for you. This new feature available on AgentNet Web and App from 02 Aug 2021 could Turbo your listing exposure by up to 8X*.  

You can look forward to the following phases when Turbo will be made available: 

Full on Turbo Mode  

Turbo is packed with all the functions that will give your residential listing the advantage it needs. 

1. Turbo Gives You Extra-Large (XL) Images 

(Left to right: Turbo listing on desktop view, Turbo listing on mobile view)

We know the effort that you put in to create great images for the best possible first impression! In these unprecedented times of COVID-19, the importance of having great images has increased for home buyers who spend more time vetting homes online as opposed to going for physical viewings. Now, you can offer greater visibility at one glance through your XL desktop image carousel and cover photos! 

2. Turbo Gives You Top Ranking Spots 

We are here to take away the heavy lifting for you, especially in competitive districts and estates – we want you to be seen! Now, you can secure more exposure as your Turbo listing is prioritised above Boost and regular listings. 

3. Turbo Gives You a WhatsApp Button

After seeing your extra-large listing tile in the top-ranking spots, you have most likely piqued the potential homebuyer’s interest. The next step is to increase their likeliness to reach out to you. This button helps to open a direct WhatsApp conversation with you effortlessly. If you have not set up an autoreply on your WhatsApp account to promptly engage your leads, now’s the time.  

4. Turbo Gives You an Ads Free Listing Page 

Simply put, less distractions for ads, more attention for your listing! Your profile photo and property headline will also be shown right next to the WhatsApp button to quickly capture the attention of your potential homebuyer and increase the likelihood of getting more leads! 

Get Set, Turbo 

Turbo is readily available for all agents with Ad Credits, that is determined by the Optimus algorithm which considers the competition and listing supply, by property type, location, project and more. The number of credits to Turbo a listing will change with the market condition, either less or more, to deliver maximum value to you. The Ad Credit quantity will be displayed next to your selected listing. 

To get you started, here’s a quick look at some of our exclusive launch promotions. This will be available for all Sale and Rent listings in the following districts and estates in Phase 1 of the Turbo Launch:  

• Condo and Landed – D04, D14, D15, D22   
• HDB – Bukit Merah, Geylang, Jurong East, Jurong West, Marine Parade 

To view promotional T&Cs, click here.

Sit back and watch how it accelerates your listing’s performance and give it the exponential exposure that you need on PropertyGuru! 

Already like what you see?  

Being a better partner for you, 
PropertyGuru Team 

*Based on PropertyGuru internal data, comparing Turbo listings against regular listings, May 2021 – June 2021 

A fitness enthusiast and former COO of ERA Singapore, Marcus Chu is no stranger to the property industry – and now he has a brand-new feather on his cap as the agency’s new CEO.

With a new leader at its helm, ERA is continuing its steady track towards an exciting future. But as we all work towards tomorrow, what are some things ERA’s new leader wants to share with his agents today?

Learn to do the same old things, in new ways

“If there’s one takeaway from the pandemic that we need to learn, it is our adaptability and willingness to learn, relearn and apply the new skills on how to do things better.”
– Marcus Chu, ERA

Your customers are changing, the market is changing. In order to survive and thrive, you need to know what ‘new’ ways your clients are using to fulfil their property needs.

The fact is people will always be buying and selling properties – and they’ll always be doing it differently.

Set your goals and believe in them

“Always believe in the goals you have set for yourself, think of different and innovative ways to achieve them; or else you are just following whatever others are doing.” – Marcus Chu, ERA

In a hypercompetitive scene, it’s important to always think ahead and think differently. What sets you apart from the rest? Once you have that down, set your goals and commit to them to the end.

You’re home with ERA

“(We’re) providing a home to every trusted adviser in Asia to strive and to do better everyday, and in every way.” – Marcus Chu, ERA

It’s a powerful promise; and Marcus aims to achieve that through building a culture that not only attracts, but also nurtures top tier talents.

A leadership that supports their agents and one another

When it comes to taking ERA Singapore to even greater heights, Marcus isn’t alone. By his side are fellow outstanding individuals – each with their own ‘superpowers’ to bring to the table.

Jack Chua, Executive Chairman of APAC Realty

The former CEO and current Executive Chairman of APAC Realty, the master franchisee for ERA in the Asia Pacific, expressed his deep passion in being a ‘people business’ – and emphasized how ERA has never (and will never) stop developing their talents; bringing forth new generations of trusted real estate advisors who not only evolve with the market, but support their clients effectively as well.

In fact, to Jack, Marcus’s new appointment is a clear testament to ERA’s DNA of striving to be better in every way.

“Marcus is a game-changer and has always been close to the ground listening to feedback and proactively rolling out new initiatives to improve the business.” – Jack Chua, ERA

Eugene Lim, Key Executive Officer

The agency’s KEO strongly seconds Jack’s strong vote of confidence for Marcus as well.

“Personally, I have also known Marcus for some time; with him taking the lead, I am confident that we will continue to break new grounds in our next phase of the agency’s growth.” – Eugene Lim, ERA

Having worked alongside Marcus for over two decades now, Eugene emphasized how the senior management’s focus has always been centered on creating value and making a difference – not only for external customers, but for their internal people in ERA too.

Doris Ong, Chief Operating Officer, Project Marketing

As the only woman in ERA Singapore’s senior management team, Doris brings forth a different perspective that widens the whole team’s point-of-view in the decision-making processes.

She highlights that project marketing is very much an integral part of ERA’s core business and there will be continued efforts in forging strategic partnerships and relationships with developers, that agents can surely look forward to benefiting from.

But that’s not all Doris has planned for ERA’s agents.

“(We’re) coming up with new initiatives and proptech tools to equip our trusted advisers to better serve home buyers.” – Doris Ong, ERA

Thomas Tan, Chief Operating Officer, Agency Business

The excitement does not stop there for ERA! The agency’s senior management also recently welcomed Thomas Tan as its newly appointed COO of Agency Business.

Showing his in-depth understanding of today’s consumers, Thomas emphasised on the importance of delivering beyond expectations – and he plans to achieve this through robust training programmes and innovative proptech tools.

“In short, we aim to empower our teammates so they are able to bring their ‘A-Game’ every time they meet their clients.” – Thomas Tan, ERA

We at PropertyGuru would like to express our gratitude to everyone in ERA’s senior management team for sharing their words with us; we’re excited to be a part of your journey to success.

And as always, we’re always striving to be a better partner for you.

– PropertyGuru Team

As we progressed to Phase 3 (Heightened Alert) in Singapore, many of us were happy to able to jump back into facials and meet up with one person to dine outside.

And if things continue to look up, we might be able to gather in groups of up to 5 people from mid-July! Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

With our daily lives changing gradually like this, how do you think property seekers’ behaviour might have changed over the month?

When to Focus Your Listings

A complete flip from the previous month, property seekers now have moved their property shopping towards the weekend.

They started picking up from Thursday and peaking from Saturday to Monday, then Tuesday and Wednesday saw a lull.

While the days of the week shifted substantially, the time of the day continues to remain the same – with property seekers continuing to pick up gradually from 8AM and holding strong till 5PM, taking a dinner break between 6PM-7PM and going up again between 8PM-10PM.

Where to Focus Your Listings

Commercial Listings

When we look at the commercial listings, City & South West (D01-08) and Balestier/Geylang (D12-14) continue to be highly popular amongst property seekers, significantly surpassing the other parts of Singapore.

However, the top 2 districts with the largest market gap are Serangoon/Thomson (D19-20) and East Coast (D15-16).

Residential Listings

When we look at residential listings, Serangoon/Thomson (D19-20) and City & South West (D01-08) continue to be highly popular amongst property seekers.

If we looked at the market gap, Serangoon/Thomson (D19-20) is still a great district to focus on. However, the district with the largest market gap is undeniably West (D22-24).

Enjoy Your Full Data Access Trial

Curious to get more in-depth data?

Head over to ‘Insights’ on your AgentNet portal and enjoy your complimentary full access to our latest suite of data tools, PropertyGuru DataSense comprising of Market Insider, Project Insights and Home Report! (Complimentary full access ends 31 July 2021).

Being a better partner for you,
PropertyGuru Group

Dear Agent Partners in Singapore,

I hope this message finds you well.

I am delighted to share with you some exciting news. Today we have announced that PropertyGuru Group will acquire all of REA Group’s property technology assets in Malaysia – iProperty.com.my and brickz.my and thinkofliving.com and Prakard.com in Thailand. PropertyGuru is also excited to welcome REA Group as a strategic investor. REA Group is a global company that deeply understands the digital property industry and they join our distinguished group of technology investors, led by KKR and TPG.

These acquisitions in Malaysia and Thailand are a key milestone in PropertyGuru’s journey – a Singapore headquartered and home-grown company that has over the last fourteen years expanded into four other markets to become Singapore’s and Southeast Asia’s Proptech leader.

By bringing iProperty.com.my, brickz.my in Malaysia and thinkofliving.com and Prakard.com into PropertyGuru Group, we will be able to deepen our focus and investment in innovation, delivering enhanced solutions for efficiency and audience reach for all our customers. We will be able to share even greater data solutions and insights and bring greater transparency and access to the Malaysian and Thai property markets. Much like our recently launched data and insight solution, DataSense, achieves in Singapore.

The Group’s expanded customer base will also enable a wider inclusion of Malaysian and Thai property agents, developers and financiers in the Southeast Asian property ecosystem. This will help spur growth in the region’s property sector in the long term.

These acquisitions underpin PropertyGuru’s strategy of being the No. 1 Proptech Group in Southeast Asia and will accelerate our ambition of becoming the “Trust Platform” for the property ecosystem: A platform that connects Southeast Asia’s property industry into an efficient ecosystem connecting agents, property seekers, developers, valuers and banks by driving greater transparency and efficiency.

We would like to reassure you that there will be no impact on your services with PropertyGuru in Singapore. In other words, it will be business as usual. You can also read the details in this press release.

We are excited to have recently rolled out enhanced agent packages (PropertyGuru Agent Partner360) that include many new and complementary services. We hope you have experienced these and we look forward to hearing your feedback on it.

Please feel free to contact your PropertyGuru Account Manager if you have any questions.

Best Regards,
 Jeremy Williams (Chief Business Officer, PropertyGuru Group) and
 Dr. Tan Tee Khoon (Country Manager, PropertyGuru Singapore)

Believe it or not, we’re already midway through 2021.

I don’t know about you, but things have been quite a blur since COVID-19 really sunk its claws into the world in 2019/2020 – so much has changed and will continue to change.

Just last month Singapore seemed to be recovering steadily and we shared a positive outlook, but latest news have us on our tippy-toes again and we’re back to WFH (work-from-home), HBL (home-based learning) and being extra vigilant in buying proper masks.

How do you think this has impacted your property seekers’ behaviour? Let’s find out!

When to Focus Your Listings

In last month’s edition, we saw high traffic spreading out throughout the week but taking a strong drop on Wednesday.

However, this month, traffic peaked on both Tuesday and Wednesday! (Looking at absolute numbers, Tuesday took the win, with Wednesday barely missing by a hairline)

This behaviour is consistent to back when Singapore first started feeling the impacts of COVID-19; when WFH and HBL started becoming our ‘new normal’.

Property seekers tend to become a lot more active in the middle of the week and taper off when nearing the weekends.

However, the traffic through the time of the day hasn’t changed much – with traffic picking up from 10AM, peaking at around 3PM and taking a ‘dinner break’ before picking back up again at 8PM.

What’s interesting is that traffic at 12AM seem to be steadily increasing; probably because that’s the time when parents have some time to themselves after everything in the house had been settled?

Where to Focus Your Listings

Commercial Listings

When we look at commercial listings, the popular choice has always been City & South West (D01-08). Despite work-from-home measures, many companies still look out for commercial spaces within that part of Singapore.

However, despite East Coast (D15-16) having seemingly little demand, it takes champion in having the largest market gap. Continue banking in on Balestier/Geylang (D12-14) too, as it has both high demand and a large market gap for commercial listings.

Residential Listings

If you’re looking for a highly popular district, it looks like City & South West (D01-08) are in demand for both commercial and residential listings. But the champion for residential listings continues to be Serangoon/Thomson (D19-20).

Serangoon/Thomson (D19-20) continues to have a significant market gap, but West (D22-24) continues to win the race.

Enjoy Your Full Data Access Trial

Curious to get more in-depth data?

Head over to ‘Insights’ on your AgentNet portal and enjoy your complimentary full access to our latest suite of data tools, PropertyGuru DataSense comprising of Market Insider, Project Insights and Home Report! (Complimentary full access ends 31 July 2021).

Being a better partner for you,
PropertyGuru Group

Hello again, Agent Partners!

We’re due for our latest edition on When & Where to Focus Your Listings: May 2021 Edition.

As a country, Singapore seems to be regaining traction despite the global pandemic and MAS even estimated our economic growth at 6% this year . How does this translate to your property seekers?

When to Focus Your Listings

Last month, property seekers’ traffic peaked on Wednesday and left the other days in the dust. However, our latest property seeker data shows the exact opposite now – with Wednesday being the least popular day, and the other days increasing significantly. The busiest day is Sunday, with Monday very close behind.

Also Friday only reflects ‘medium’ traffic volume, it also isn’t far off from Thursday.

However, the time of the day looks to be fairly consistent – with traffic picking up gradually from 8AM onwards and tapering off after 12AM. Be sure not to miss out on benefiting from maximum exposure by scheduling your Auto-Repost!

Where to Focus Your Listings

Commercial Listings

There hasn’t been a shift in demand for commercial listings. City & South West (D01-08) continue to reign champion, with Balestier/Geylang (D12-14) coming in at second.

The lesser-in-demand districts for commercial listings continue to be Newton/Bukit Tim (D11,21) and Changi/Pasir Ris (D17-18).

However, if we take a look at the market gap – City & South West (D01-08) doesn’t have as high a gap. In fact, the district with largest market gap for commercial listings continues to be Serangoon/Thomson (D19-20).

Residential Listings

Now, let’s take a look at residential listings.

When it comes to popular residential districts, Serangoon/Thomson (D19-20) has always been a hot favourite.

And even looking at the market gap, Serangoon/Thomson (D19-20) continues to hold a strong appeal for you. However, the district with the largest gap for residential listings is West (D22-24).

Get Your Own Data on AgentNet

Curious to get more in-depth data?

Head over to ‘Insights’ on your AgentNet portal and enjoy your complimentary full access to our latest suite of data tools, PropertyGuru DataSense comprising of Market Insider, Project Insights and Home Report! (Complimentary full access ends 31 July 2021).

Thank you for joining us for this edition, do stay tuned for the next one!

Being a better partner for you,
PropertyGuru Group

Being a real estate agent teaches you a lot of things – from being super savvy about property, to managing generations of clients and more. But what about life lessons?

Today we look at Lester Chen, who recently returned to the real estate industry, with a bag full of life lessons ready to propel him forward.

So, who is Lester Chen?

If you were in the business around 2005, you might’ve heard of young(er) Lester.

Today, amongst SRI’s >1,000 salesperson, Lester clinched first place by reaping in more than S$1 million between May to October in the unprecedented year of 2020.

But it wasn’t always a smooth ride for Lester.

Look at Fear in the Eye and Fight Forward

While many people look at the ones on top with envy, the ones on top know how hard they worked to get there.

Just before Singapore underwent the Circuit Breaker, Lester decided to reenter the property market. It’s an understatement to say the beginning of his return was drenched in uncertainty and fear.

However, that didn’t waver Lester.

He woke up every morning before the rooster and attended webinars prepared daily by SRI; determined to get his mind back in shape and updated.

While many would agree COVID-19 wasn’t an ideal situation, it was through the Circuit Breaker period that Lester unlearned his previous ideals and replaced them with new learnings to equip him on his journey to success.

Injected with passion and perseverance, he endlessly reviewed his methods to improve upon them again and again.

Don’t Just Learn – Learn ‘How to’ Apply

Back in the early 2000s, Lester was a young and hungry agent who clocked in about 20 HDB transactions every month. Soon, he joined Eric Cheng to explore the high-end investors market.

Through Eric, Lester picked up countless valuable concepts and fundamentals that he still remembers till this day. Most importantly, he learned how to apply the knowledge into his business – which very quickly translated into monetary success for young Lester.

He even had a team of 300 agents back in 2008, but then had an idea to start out on his own with his own company and build a lifestyle mobile application. So, he left his job as a property agent back then.

Nothing Emotional, It’s Business Logic

With his own start-up, Lester soon hit a high. He raised millions in cash, had over 1,000 partners and the app saw more than 300,000 users.

He even honestly admitted how large his ego back then was and how he ran his business based on his mood and hired people based purely on relationships, and not their skills.

Despite having a novel idea, great backing and popularity – within a short 2 years, Lester knew his ship was sinking. It was getting increasingly hard to manage the people and keep them all afloat.

Before long, Lester made the painful decision to close his business and things took a sharp fall from there.

It’s Okay to Fail, But It’s Not Okay to Quit

At the brink of bankruptcy, Lester was beyond desperate. He was driving a private hire car simply to make ends meet, but he knew it would never be able to earn him enough to pay back his investors.

At this point, he was at his lowest. Tearfully, Lester admitted to contemplating suicide every single day. He was lost; he spent a lot of time reflecting on his past mistakes and wanted the chance to do better, but he felt hopeless in finding a way to continue.

Then, as fate would have it, Lester and his wife were blessed with a baby. You might call it cheesy – but it was like a bolt of lightning from heaven to Lester.

Coupled with strong encouragement of Bruce Lye (SRI Managing Partner), who over the years has not only been a great mentor and business partner, but also a reliable buddy – Lester was forced awake and realised he needed to move ahead.

Know Who/What You Work For

Everyone, including you, has their own reason of why we work; why we choose to spend our time to get our work done.

We all have something that matters to us. The only difference is what matters enough for us to work hard every single day for the rest of our lives. (Or at least until a comfortable retirement)

Upon his return to the real estate industry, Lester vowed that he would be on top. Which is why despite the circumstances of the Circuit Breaker, Lester worked hard to achieve his breakthrough within his very first month of return.

No Excuses; Just Keep Going

“I’ve failed before and I’ve learned. I’m working very hard to not fail again!” exclaimed Lester with vigour and passion.

Today, Lester holds the position of the number one producer in SRI, earning over S$1 million right in the crust of COVID-19. Steadily, Lester is regaining traction and is beginning to finally see the fruits of his labour with his team of trusty agents.

Together with his mentor and team by his side, his family in his heart and determination in his mind – Lester is set on his course to incredible success. Want to get in touch with Lester? Check out his profile now!

PropertyGuru would like to extend our thanks to Lester for taking the time to share his amazing experiences with us, with so much honesty, passion and drive. We wish Lester great success and look forward to many, many years of valuable partnership ahead!

Get More for the Same! Effective from 1 June 2021, PropertyGuru will enhance our agent packages and entitlements as we strive to deliver greater value and performance to our Agent Partners.

With PropertyGuru’s Partner360 commitment, we are continuously improving our products and services, so we can continue to deliver value and quality results to you.

These strong results between October 2020 to March 2021 mean you can continue to look forward to even more leads, more views and higher closings! Together with the enhanced packages, we continue our promise to be a better partner for you, by meeting your needs and demands of your business.

Enhanced Agent Packages Designed to Suit Your Career Needs

In our effort to better serve our Agent Partners, we have enhanced our agent packages and entitlements. Effective from 1 June 2021, every Agent Partner, whether you’re a Rookie or a Top Producer will be able to benefit from these enhanced packages. There’s something for everyone, regardless which stage of your real estate career you’re at!

What’s in these enhanced Agent Packages?

The table below summarises the agent packages and their respective new entitlements.

FAQs here.

What’s new, and how it helps to supercharge your business?

With PropertyGuru’s commitment to be a better partner for you, we are now supercharging your agent package with the all new and powerful PropertyGuru DataSense and Partner360 value offerings, on top of the performance we’ve been delivering to you.

With these new and enhanced entitlements, we want to help you maximise your investment on PropertyGuru and deliver greater efficiency and closings to you. Effective from 1 June 2021, Agent Partners can enjoy the following as part of your agent package:

Enjoy More Benefits in your Package with Partner360 Suite of Rewards and Value Offerings

Staying true to our Partner360 promise to deliver better products and solutions to serve our Agent Partners, your agent packages also entitles you to the following:

New Features and Upgrades in 2021

As we continue to scale new heights in 2021, by being our valued Agent Partner, you can also benefit from these new features and upgrades with the goal of driving greater value and performance to you. These include:

It doesn’t just stop right here! With Partner360, you can expect to receive a continuous upgrade in products and services as we strive to deliver the best value and success to you.

Meanwhile, if you have any questions, do reach out to your Account Manager or contact our Customer Care Team via email at custcare@propertyguru.com.sg.

Thank you for your endless support through the years; we look forward to serving you better!

Being a better partner for you,

– PropertyGuru Team

Say ‘hello’ to Elite Rewards where you get to enjoy a suite of rewards and benefits, prepared just for you:

Have you benefited from the new Partner360 programme yet?
As an Agent Partner, your success matters to us. And being your partner means giving you 360° of empowerment and supporting you in every aspect of your real estate agent career by bringing you more leads, helping you close deals faster, and giving you opportunities to upskill.

Now we’re excited to share even more benefits with you.

In October 2020, we launched Prestige Rewards for our Solitaire, Titanium, and Platinum Agent Partners.

Today we’re launching Rewards for our Elite-Gold, Elite-Silver and Elite partners. Enjoy a host of unique benefits and privileges such as Birthday Treats, Milestone Recognitions and exclusive invites!

There’s something for everyone!

With PropertyGuru, you can elevate your game – and enjoy more perks in the process!

Introducing Elite Rewards

Supporting you on your journey to greater success and rewards

With Partner360, it’s all about bringing you all the good stuff and delivering a more rewarding partner experience, like no other. With Elite Rewards, you get to enjoy more privileges as an Elite-Gold, Elite-Silver or Elite partner!

Note: Agent Partners are automatically enrolled into the Elite Rewards programme the moment they join PropertyGuru.

Celebrating Your Personal Milestones

As an Elite-Gold, Elite-Silver, or Elite partner, your milestones will be celebrated by the PropertyGuru community through special recognition and rewards.

Here’s what you can look forward to:

Excited to start? Wait – there’s one more surprise for you!

Check Out Your Tier Status and Enjoy Your Rewards Now!

How do you know which rewards tier you qualify for? Here’s a quick guide:

Your rewards tier status will be updated quarterly based on your last 12-month investment on Agent Package subscription, Ad Credits and other Premium Features. To view the reward points you’ve accumulated, please visit AgentNet (Web) and you’ll see it under your Agent profile.

You can learn more about Elite Rewards here.

Meanwhile, if you have any questions or concerns, always feel free to reach out to our Customer Service Team via WhatsApp at +65 9298 1629 or email at custcare@propertyguru.com.sg.

Being a better partner for you,

– PropertyGuru Team

Why use multiple platforms for data, when you can get it all within just one.

Data is becoming an increasingly important asset and your success depends on how you’re able to harness data and use it to convince your clients! Wondering how data insight can help you with your business? Watch this video by Joe Thor, Managing Director of MyProperty Data at PropertyGuru Group for some tips and strategies on how data tools can help you.

True to our Partner360 promise, we’re always looking for more ways to become a better partner for you – so you can be the best real estate professional you can be.

Presenting to you 3 new additions on ‘Insights’ under AgentNet:

These 3 new tools that have been designed to:

• Help you tell your sales story
• Find promising prospects and identify market opportunities
• Maximise your marketing spend
• Give you relevant and accurate property information
• …and so much more!

Available as a complimentary trial until 31 July 2021 to all Agent Partners – each of these tools bring their own winning factors. Let’s check this out now!

Market Insider: Market insights, from the inside

This is a powerful tool for you to achieve a macro look at how the market is doing for both condominiums and landed properties.

Here’s a sneak peek:

Know what you want to zoom into? You’ll also see an extensive selection of filters you can utilise to help narrow down the data and present you information like:

• Median PSF value
• Median PSF Comparison: Actual (Transacted) vs Asking – a PropertyGuru exclusive!
• Total sales transacted value
• Volume of transactions
• Top 10 projects (based on number of transactions)
• Latest transactions from the last 14 days

Find out How to Use Market Insider.

Project Insights: Scanning for Your Opportunities

Now here’s the one that helps you with more narrowed down information and will be extremely useful in finding out exactly which unit you can focus on.

Filter your findings into what matters – like SSD (Seller Stamp Duty) status and percentage of Net Gain and so on. Particularly useful for your own mailer advertisements!

Here’s a sneak peek:

Get information on things like:

• Number and link to active listings found on PropertyGuru
• Floor area
• PSF value
• Last transaction date and value
• Current estimated price
• SSD amount and status
• Net gain or loss
• Number of transactions the unit has gone through

Find out How to Use Project Insights.

Home Report: Get a Full-view of Information

This is where you get a more micro view and understanding of things. At this stage, you can expect to get unit-specific information that will empower you with a well-rounded understanding of the property.

Here’s a sneak peek:

Love maps? We do too! There’s a map feature that lets you immediately check out all the surrounding amenities, so you know how to craft your sales story.

Home Report also comes with its own set of useful filters, which can bring you information like:

• Current estimated price
• Net gain or loss (after factoring in Seller Stamp Duty liabilities)
• Estimated mortgage
• Mortgage calculator
• Past transactions of the unit
• Transactions of the same project
• Transaction volume trend comparison with other projects in the same town, same district or Singapore
• Median PSF trend comparison with other projects in the same town, same district or Singapore
• Nearby amenities and the number of amenities for each category
• Similar projects and their transaction volume, median PSF and annualised gain

Find out How to Use Home Report.

There’s no time to waste! You enjoy a complimentary trial on all 3 tools till 31 July 2021, so the time to use them to the fullest is right now.

And it doesn’t just stop here – this is just the start of our data offerings! We’re true to our Partner360 promise, and you can definitely expect some fast follows, with progressive improvements and updates to be done in the coming weeks and months. We will be constantly collecting agent feedback in the coming weeks, and improving and upgrading the data products based off your feedback.

PropertyGuru would like to do a special shout-out to the Agent Partners who have taken the time to do user research and feedback on these tools before launching. All of us are grateful and look forward to continuously delivering more value and delight to you.

Want to co-create future products with us? We’d love to have you! Let us know by filling out your details in this form and one of our Gurus will be in touch when there’s a user research suitable for you!

Need on-demand crash courses on how to use these tools? You can watch them on PropertyGuru Academy!

Being a better partner for you,
PropertyGuru Team

We’re back with our monthly feature and as we enter the 2nd quarter of 2021, with hear-say of cooling measures brewing – how do you think the market is doing?

Let’s take a look at property seekers’ behavioral data over the past month.

When to Focus Your Listings

Property seekers’ behaviour was quite different last month, versus the recent previous months.

With Wednesday taking a clear lead, it is almost the direct opposite of last month! However, one thing remains consistent – Friday tends to be the day when property seekers are less active.

The time of the days, however, remains consistent with the hours with the highest traffic between 10AM to 5PM, then picking back up again between 8PM to 10PM.

Where to Focus Your Listings

We’ve heard feedback from some Agent Partners that you’d appreciate data breakdown between Residential and Commercial listings.

So, here under ‘Where to Focus Your Listings’, you’ll see 2 separate sections. We hope you’ll benefit and find value in these findings!

In alphabetical order, let’s start with Commercial Listings first.

Commercial Listings

As expected of commercial property demand, the highest views go to City & South West (D01-08), but don’t miss out on Balestier/Geylang (D12-14) – demand is very high there as well!

But, what about the market gap?

Balestier/Geylang (D12-14)’s market gap is significant as well!

There are plenty of listings for City & South West (D01-08), so market gap is pretty average.

However interestingly, even though Serangoon/Thomson (D19-20) only has an average volume of views, it doesn’t have as many listings to meet its demand. In fact, it seems that the districts with lower views at this point actually have larger market gaps. This is likely due to the lack of commercial listings available in those districts.

Residential Listings

Now, when we look at residential demand, Serangoon/Thomson (D19-20) remains a popular choice.

However, when it comes to the market gap, West (D22-24) wins, with North (D25-28) following closely behind. Just looking at the graph below, it seems the market gap gets bigger as the district number gets higher.

That’s all for this month – we hope you found it useful! And most of all, hope that the upgrade between Commercial and Residential was beneficial to you.

Want to get even more data insights? Head over to ‘Insights’ in your AgentNet now! There we have 3 brand new tools for you to enjoy with complimentary access till 31 July 2021.

Note: These tools are rolling out progressively to all Agent Partners – all partners should get access by 31 March 2021.

Being a better partner for you,
PropertyGuru Group

Time really flies! We’re already moving into the last month of the quarter and as reflected in our Property Market Index Q1 2021, the market is remaining positive.  

And this could be due to the low interest rates that allow for some property seekers to leverage on and drive their property aspirations forward. (Interested to find out the most recent and best interest rates? Ask your Account Manager to refer you to a PropertyGuru Finance advisor today!) 

Now, how can you leverage on this as well?  

When to Focus Your Listings

Property seekers behaved differently in February versus January, and this could be due to the Lunar New Year season.  

Friday used to be the day when property seekers typically take a break from searching, but it seems they it shifted to Wednesday and Thursday. It’s interesting that search remained consistently high from Sunday to Tuesday – that’s 3 straight days of high volume searching!  

Now, let’s look at the time you should focus on Repost and Boost!  

Note: We heard feedback from some Agent Partners like you that you’d appreciate hourly breakdowns, so we’ve improved on the graph below! We hope you’ll benefit from it. 

Looking at traffic on an hourly basis, you can now more effectively target your clients. It seems that activity begins at 8AM and starts to peak at 10AM and remains fairly consistent till 10PM – so you have 12 full hours of active search.  

However, take note that 6PM-7PM experiences a slight lull – likely this is due to dinner time. After they’re done makan-ing, they’re immediately back and then hit the highest at 9PM.  

Where to Focus Your Listings

As seen in our Property Market Index Q1 2021, space is important to property seekers – this can be attributed to our homes having to accommodate our workspaces and sometimes even school.  

Being so, this might influence a change in districts of interest.  

Serangoon/Thomson (D19-20) continue to be a popular choice, with almost twice the volume of views when compared to other districts.  

However, when we look the number of listings versus volume of views (supply versus demand) – North (D25-28) is champion, with Orchard/Holland (D09-10) and Changi/Pasir Ris (D17-18) very close behind.  

We hope you found this article helpful.  

Now, time to head down to AgentNet to strategise your listings! 

Being a better partner for you, 

PropertyGuru Group 

Further delivering on our Partner360 promise, we’re proud to launch the new PropertyGuru Academy – the better and improved version.  

Why is this better?  

1. It can empower you with accreditation: So, you can upskill, have the knowledge and the paper qualifications to be the best property agent you can be.  
2. Helps you stand out from other agents: Because we know how important personal branding is to you. 
3. Shows you nifty ways to get the most from your Ad Credits and AgentNet: In other words, how to fully maximise your investments with PropertyGuru. 

Certified Courses: Be Empowered with Accreditation 

These days, everyone is upskilling, and we want to make sure you don’t lose out. Not only will you be empowered with knowledge; you’ll even have the paper qualifications to prove it.  

We partnered with Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) to design this customised series of highly relevant courses – specially for you:  

Find out more!  

What’s even better? You get to enjoy up to 90%* subsidy and the remaining can be paid with SkillsFuture Credits.  

*Singapore citizens above 40 years of age qualify for 90% subsidy; Singapore citizens below 40 years of age qualify for 70% subsidy. 

Unsure about SkillsFuture Credits? You can refer to their FAQ here! 

How to make sure you enjoy maximum benefits? To ensure you receive certification for completing the course, simply register by: 

1. Using your exclusive PropertyGuru code – PGA2021  
2. Entering the same mobile number and email address you use for your AgentNet account.

Certified Profile Badges: Stand out from Other Agents 

Coming to you soon – If you invest in upgrading yourself through PropertyGuru Academy, we want property seekers to know all about it!  

Once you’ve completed the minimum number of courses, your PropertyGuru Agent Profile will have a certified profile badge prominently displayed for all of 5 million monthly visitors on PropertyGuru Singapore to see.  

As an agent, you want to stand out from the rest and really give a boost your personal branding – and that’s just what these certified profile badges are for!  

They help to shoutout that you’re an active, credible and relevant property agent that is worthy of their trust.  

Basic Partner Training: Get the Most from Your Ad Credits and AgentNet  

Now, here’s where we share tips and tricks with you on how to fully maximise your PropertyGuru investment dollars.  

Be it utilising your package entitlements, or the Ad Credits purchased online or via your Account Manager – we’ll show you what you need to know!   

Available on-demand (videos), through webinars and in-person training sessions, and absolutely free-of-charge, here are a couple of popular ones:  

• All About AgentNet  
• 3 Online Marketing Tools for Property Agents  

Watch them here. 

So, without further ado – there’s one thing you should do!  

Check out PropertyGuru Academy 2.0 now and empower yourself with the knowledge to compete (and win). 

Being a better partner for you,  
PropertyGuru Team 

Despite the impacts of Circuit Breaker still fresh in our minds and COVID-19 still a pertinent issue in our foreseeable future, the property market in Singapore has defied the odds.

Property sales remained steady despite rising prices and new form of demand has risen with our ‘new normal’ – people are increasingly realising the importance of home.

As seen in our recent PropertyGuru Consumer Sentiment Survey H1 2021, 49% need more personal/family space. This was an expected outcome of the nation undergoing Circuit Breaker.

Suddenly the same amount of space where you called home, is now expected to be much more – office, school, tuition centre, cafeteria etc. Suddenly the same space that we looked forward to returning to after a day outside in our urban jungle, has become its own sort of jungle.

Which explains why more and more people are looking for more space – this means, your clients are on the move and you need to be there to help!

When to Focus Your Listings

Similar to trends during Circuit Breaker, it seems that the day of the week with the highest traffic in January 2021 was actually Tuesday. This could be due to the fact that most office workers have had to clear leave in December, even though we’re unable to travel out of our island city. So, their lifestyle might’ve mimicked what it was like during Circuit Breaker.

However, don’t discount Sunday and Monday! Traffic still continues to hold strong during those days.

The day with the least amount of traffic continues to be Friday – where we envision them to be relaxing or probably out at viewings with you!

Even though the day of the week with the highest traffic is the same as Circuit Breaker period, the time of the day didn’t follow the same trend. 12PM to 3PM continues to be the timeframe with the most traffic through the day – but what is interesting to note is that the traffic during 12AM to 3AM increased significantly from last month.

It still pales massively in comparison to the more ‘regular’ hours of the day, of course. But let’s just keep a lookout for this in the upcoming months!

Where to Focus Your Listings

When it comes to the districts with the highest listing views, Serangoon/Thomson (Districts 19 to 20) continue being the most popular – which is pretty much the same as previous months.

However, what’s really interesting this month is the market gap! Whilst the district with the largest market gap (too much demand, too little supply) remains to be Changi/Pasir Ris (Districts 17 to 18), it is worthwhile to call out that property seekers’ demand is exceeding listing supply in all districts.

If you look at the gaps in our January 2021 edition, districts like Newton/Bukit Timah (D11, 21) and Serangoon/Thomson (D19, 20) had small market gaps – as there were already enough listings to meet demand.

However, in our most recent findings, it seems that property seekers are looking all over Singapore for properties to view and there simply aren’t enough listings to go around!

So, time to head over to your trusty AgentNet and get those amazing listings up!

In the meantime, here’s a Happy Lunar New Year in advance!

Being a better partner for you,
PropertyGuru Team

When it comes to taking a home loan, most property-seekers might focus on the mortgage with the lowest interest rates. As shared in one of our property guides, there are more considerations to getting the best home loan than just interest rates. Your client’s desire for a fixed monthly repayment or the propensity for risk would come into play as well.

For first-time clients applying for a home loan, they will likely be appreciative of your guidance in helping them understand what to look out for in a mortgage. Other than a whole list of mortgage jargon to grapple with, they could also have many other questions. Not only that, missing out on certain important clauses can lead to undesirable consequences later in the tenure. Here’s some helpful tips to guide your clients to better understand some common clauses in order to navigate the mortgage puzzle.

Watch Video on YouTube here!

1. When can my client refinance or reprice his/her home loan?

When shopping for a home loan, it is common to see that some of these loans come with a “lock-in period”. This indicates a period where the borrower is obligated to stick with the same loan with a bank in order to enjoy a special promotional interest rate. This period can be anywhere between 1 to 5 years. They can use PropertyGuru’s Refinancing calculator to find out how much they stand to save by refinancing.

Should they decide to refinance or redeem the loan within the lock-in period for whichever reasons, the bank would usually levy a penalty of 1.5% on the loan amount redeemed.

2. Does my client have the flexibility to pay down part of his/her home loan?

Your client might have gained an unexpected windfall or had an exceptional bonus year and wish to pay down a part of his loan to reduce the overall interest payments. This is considered a partial repayment. In most cases, a partial repayment penalty of about 1.5% on the amount of mortgage prepaid will be levied. He’ll also need to serve a minimum one-month notice in writing before making a partial repayment.

3. Are there fees my client should be aware of?

There are many ways in which a bank can levy fees on a borrower. The key is to be aware of these clauses so that your clients can avoid the payment of these unnecessary charges. Common fees associated with home loans include:

Partial or full redemption fees: Generally, home loans that come with a lock-in period attract a penalty whenever one tries to redeem, whether in partial or full. This prepayment penalty is typically 1.5% on the loan amount redeemed. Thus, if they are considering a partial redemption, make sure the fee payments do not wipe out the interest savings.

Processing fees: Also known as a conversion fee, this is levied on the borrower during refinancing or repricing.

Another factor which is less significant to consider is the re-pricing admin fee. Some call this a conversion fee. Refinancing or repricing allows one to switch over to another loan package after the expiry of the lock-in period with the current loan. The difference is that repricing is done with the same bank instead of a different one. Do note that some banks may allow for a one-time repricing for free. Most banks charge somewhere between $300-500 for re-pricing and can go up to $800 for refinancing.

Legal and valuation fees: These are 2 other costs one will incur during refinancing. To attract borrowers to take up a loan with them, banks may give customers a subsidy in the form of cash rebates or a legal fee subsidy.

While most people will not say no to a subsidy, it also means that if your clients choose to move their loan within 3 years, they might face a clawback of these subsidies.

Legal fees typically cost anywhere from $1,800 to $3,000, and the valuation fee, which is paid to a professional for assessing the property’s market value, can range between $150 and $700. If your clients are keen to refinance, do read our ultimate refinancing checklist for reference!

Taking out a home loan can be a cumbersome process for your clients, especially if they are applying for the first time. It’s always best to work with our in-house loan specialists who can offer personalised and 100% unbiased advice to your clients and help them find the optimal home loan package according to their individual needs.

PropertyGuru does the legwork for you and send you real-time updates of your client’s loan status so that you can focus on scheduling and conducting home visits without compromising on your customer service standards. What’s more, every successful loan application will earn you bonus PropertyGuru Ad Credits that can help bring success to your other listings.

If your clients are ready to apply for a home loan, contact us via WhatsApp us at +65 8769 5300 and let us do all the legwork for you!

Being a better partner for you, 
PropertyGuru Team

This is a scene you’re probably familiar with – you’re working late into the night after a day of meeting with prospects and taking pictures for your new listings. You’re ready to publish a new amazing listing and you’ve already gotten a high Listing Quality Score) – but alas! You’re out of Ad Credits!

Well, here’s some great news.

Starting off 2021 on a high note and exemplifying our PropertyGuru Partner360 promise to you, we are happy to tell you that you can say goodbye to such frustrating experiences forever!

With our brand new Agent Self-serve Channel now available on AgentNet, you have the power to unlock success for your listings anytime, anywhere.

No more lapses on Repost or Boost, you can use your Ad Credits immediately after purchase via the Agent Self-serve Channel!

What exactly is PropertyGuru’s Agent Self-serve Channel?

Simply put, the Agent Self-serve Channel is a self-service platform that allows all our active PropertyGuru Agent Partners to easily and securely purchase your Ad Credits on PropertyGuru.

This is part of PropertyGuru Partner360 where we work to empower PropertyGuru Agent Partners with a suite of solutions and privileges that all our Agent Partners can benefit from. The Agent Self-serve Channel allows you to:

• Purchase Ad Credits anytime, anywhere at your own convenience
• Enjoy a seamless experience from checkout to payment all within a single platform
• Receive Ad Credits instantly upon every successful purchase
• Get access to online-exclusive promotions
• Make payment in a safe and secure environment through an accredited payment gateway*

*Note: PropertyGuru does not hold any of your credit card data, all payment details are stored with our trusted partner Adyen.

Buying Ad Credits is Now Quicker and Easier

Within a couple of minutes and taps/clicks, your Ad Credits are immediately restocked and you’re ready to unlock even more success for your listings!

Flexible Options on your Ad Credit Purchases

You’ll be able to purchase Ad Credits either in Featured Quantity (pre-defined amount) or Other Quantity (customised amount). Featured Quantity Ad Credits are packaged in pre-defined quantity for a faster checkout and special promotion bundles whereas the latter allows you to customise your Ad Credits quantity for maximum flexibility.

Learn more on how to purchase Ad Credits via the Agent Self-serve Channel in this Help Article.

Post Your Listings Instantly – Anytime, Anywhere

A seamless Ad Credits buying experience means you spend your time more efficiently – your listings can be posted or Reposted instantly after a successful purchase; which means, you have more time to focus on property viewings and other aspects of your business.

You also get to work at your peak productivity hours at any time of the day, and even anywhere in the world so that your success is limitless!

Without having the need to go through your Account Manager to process your Ad Credit purchases, you can now enjoy a faster checkout process and online-exclusive promotions.

Launch Exclusive Promotion

To celebrate the launch of the Agent Self-serve Channel, from now till 30 April 2021, you enjoy 5% off when you purchase any small Ad Credits bundle (in multiples of 100 Ad Credits). A bundle of 100 Ad Credits will only cost you $71 instead of the usual $75, and you can purchase up to a maximum of 500 Ad Credits (5 bundles). More details on promotion here.

Hurry and make your purchase here before 30 April 2021.

Have questions about the Agent Self-serve Channel? Check out this Help Article we prepared for you.
For any feedback, we welcome you to share it with us by dropping us a WhatsApp message.
Thank you and we hope that the Agent Self-serve Channel serves you well!

Becoming a better partner for you,
PropertyGuru Team

While the COVID-19 pandemic turned the whole of 2020 upside down, the good news is we all made it through safe and sound, so let’s bring on 2021 with hope and optimism that it will surely be better! PropertyGuru wishes all Agent Partners a prosperous and successful year ahead!

With the commitment to empower all Agent Partners to become trusted partners to property seekers, PropertyGuru will continue to support Agent Partners with the latest market trends and data to help bring more leads to your business.

Starting off 2021 with some great news! Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, property seekers show no sign of stopping, with listing views reaching a remarkable growth of 55.1% between January to December. Q4 2020 also takes up the bulk of the search volume, reflecting your consumers’ interest and demand coming at you at full force.

Next, let’s find out which areas are the most popular among property seekers, and the period when they are the most active online. Here’s the summary for this month’s edition.

When to Focus Your Listings

If we look back at the search volumes between 22 November to 31 December 2020, we can see that the consumer’s behaviour is shifting back to pre-Circuit Breaker days.

During other years, December is typically a lull period with everyone on holiday. However, in the December of this unprecedented year, behaviour reflects what seems to be a usual month.

Sunday is once again the champion, with Monday and Tuesday very close to each other. Then they start to taper off during the week, taking a break on Fridays and climbing back up from Saturday.

If we look at the time of the day your consumers are most active, it hasn’t shifted much either.

They continue picking up traction in the morning, peaking at lunchtime (12PM-3PM) and keeping steady till the end of the day.

Where to Focus Your Listings

Now that you know what day and time to optimize your listings, let’s look at the districts in Singapore and which ones attract the highest search volume!

Serangoon/Thomson (District 19-20) continue to be popular choices for consumers, significantly surpassing other districts.

However, let’s put things into perspective – while Serangoon/Thomson (District 19-20) are indeed popular, it also has a super high number of listings catering to that demand. Which means competition is fierce and market gap is narrow.

So which districts have more demand than listing supply?

Changi/Pasir Ris (D17-18) continue being the district with the largest market gap, with too few available listings to meet its demand. Alongside other popular residential areas like West (D22-24), North (D25-28) and Orchard/Holland (D09-D10) are also in need of listings. Now you know where to start hunting for listings!

TIP!

Don’t have listing in these high demand areas? Get instant access to available and ready for sale projects on FastKey Projects so you can quickly fill up this demand and capture more leads for your business!

Being a better partner for you,
PropertyGuru Team

Data is one of the newest and most valued assets in our digital economy.

Understanding data is an important aspect of your role to help your customers make better decisions. Here’s 3 ways you can use data to close more deals:

Click to do directly to: AreaInsider | FastKey Projects | Market Supply Gap | Agent News | Consumer Sentiment Survey | Property Market Index

Analyze Market Supply & Demand to Identify Opportunities

The pandemic has fast forward digital transformation within the real estate industry, with property information readily available at any time of the day leaving property seekers spoilt for choice. 

To stand out from competition, you must leverage on data to analyze property price trends and market demand shifts to identify opportunities. AreaInsider helps you stay updated on price trends for popular hotspots in Singapore, while FastKey Projects allows you to explore regional projects and special offers by developers. 

In addition, Market Supply Gap on AgentNet provides demand and supply data updated daily to help you easily identify specific areas where you can enjoy higher success rate.  

When there is a higher demand and lower supply, Market Supply Gap identifies this as an opportunity – so agents can use this information to optimize advertising investments and efforts.  

Here’s how it looks like:  

Attract More Leads with the Right Data

Another useful way to get updated information is through our monthly editions of ‘When & Where to Focus Your Listings’ under Agent News! 

Based on our November edition, listing views peak the highest on Sunday and maintain momentum through till Monday. We also noticed that property seekers are most active during 12pm-3pm and keep up a high level of engagement till 11pm. 

Now that you know when and where property seekers are actively searching on our website, you can optimize your listing by using Spotlight and Auto-Repost feature to gain maximum exposure.    

Opportunities for Agent Partners

To empower you to become trusted advisors to your customers, here are some resources supplemented with useful data to help you close deals faster:  

• Consumer Sentiment Survey 
• Property Market Index  
• PropertyGuru Academy  
• Agent Partner News Digest (you’ll see them published once every 2 weeks on your AgentNet!) 
• Help Articles 

We hope these resources will be helpful to you! In the meantime, be safe and stay tuned for next updates. 
 

Being a better partner for you,  
PropertyGuru Team 

Let’s take a peek into the luxurious and unique properties in Singapore.

They’re exclusive and relatively elusive; and giving us a rare glimpse into this particular property scene, we have Jeremy Lim from Huttons.

Specialising in luxury properties and conservation houses in some of Singapore’s most prestigious districts, Jeremy successfully transacted approximately S$350 million dollars’ worth of properties in just the last 5 years.

With such an impressive portfolio and credible track record, it’s no wonder that most of Jeremy’s clientele are HNWIs (High-Net-Worth Individual) with property interests both in Singapore and abroad.

So, what sort of properties have Jeremy helped his clients? Today, we look at 2 main ones – luxury condominiums and shophouses.

Luxury Condominiums

Having dealt with high profile developments like New Futura, Gramercy Park, OUE Twin Peaks, The Avenir and Martin Modern – Jeremy is no stranger to what HNWIs look for in their residential purchases.

Selected Locations

Indeed, when it comes to real estate, it all boils down to location, location, location.

Specialising in Districts 9 and 10, Jeremy also needs to pay special attention to hunt for properties in selected small clusters for his clients.

Landscaping and Size

Most HNWIs are already used to living in larger spaces and therefore have the same ask for their luxury condominiums. We’re looking at houses with a minimum of 1,500 square feet, which are slightly larger than our HDB jumbo flats.

Alongside, the land size of the entire development is preferred to be at least 80,000 to 100,000 square feet in total – with scintillating landscaping to boot.

Reputable Developer

Having a reliable, reputable and big developer brand name behind the condominium is also an essential to Jeremy’s clients. It’s not just for namesake though; it actually comes down to the trust in the developer delivering their desired level of quality and finishing to the property.

Shophouses

With only 6,500 conservation shophouses on our bustling red dot, Singapore’s shophouses are a rarity and is a popular wealth preservation choice for HNWIs.

However much like fingerprints or snow flakes, every single shophouse is unique – which where Jeremy comes in to help his clients understand them better.

But why are conservation shophouses so popular? Well, it could be due to their extremely limited supply and versatility.

For Investment and Wealth Preservation

“The supply of shophouses in Singapore is fixed and it’s precisely because of this, that makes it great for wealth preservation and investment.”

In fact, according to Jeremy, not only is the supply fixed – but the demand for shophouses is growing. So much so that its price per square feet has increased by a whopping 50% over the years.

And shophouses are also great for different businesses, with more moving out of malls and into shophouses.

“For those who buy the shophouse, it’s also rent control. It’s a long-term investment as they save big on rental.”

For Running an F&B Business

Could be the ambience it brings, but shophouses are definitely popular location for restaurants (just think of the entire stretch of endless Korean BBQs along Tanjong Pagar).

Having a restaurant in a shophouse also attracts tons of walk-in customers; especially when you’re strategically placed in a cluster of similar F&Bs.

“You need to think of what type of people you’d like to attract to your shophouse. For F&B, you want a location that is able to attract people 7 days a week.”

Might sound like a ‘basic’ deliverable, but it’s actually a lot harder than it looks. It’s finding the perfect convergence of accessibility, surrounding amenities, nearby residences and much more; for Jeremy to find the ‘perfect’ shophouse for his client.

For Established Local Retailers

Offering much more operational and renovations freedom compared to shopping malls, shophouses is also popular amongst retailers.

“For retailers, you want to look at the frontage of the shophouse. And another actor often overlooked is the flow of traffic in front of your shop.”

Speaking like a true shophouse expert, Jeremy shared that not only is parking availability a consideration; you need to consider the direction of traffic in front of your shophouse, as it impacts its accessibility.

There is a multitude of factors to consider when you’re looking at shophouses and countless details one needs to be careful about. However, time is also of the essence, given the limited supply of shophouses.

Especially with shophouses in District 7, like this one along Tan Quee Lan Street, Jeremy is confident of how much promise it holds:

With exciting upcoming launches like Midtown Bay and The M coming up in District 7, coupled with the nearby popular Bugis shopping district – it’s definitely one of the places to look out for!

However much like how every shophouse is unique, each district also has its own allure. You’ll need a real estate professional with in-depth understanding and instinctive foresight to advice you along.

PropertyGuru would like to thank Jeremy for his incredible sharing and insights on this niche part of Singapore’s property market!

Being a better partner for you,
PropertyGuru Team

After countless viewing of different properties, your client has finally found his dream home. Nothing could be more satisfying for an agent than knowing that their clients have chosen a place they would like to purchase. All that hard work into looking for a suitable property for your client has finally paid off! 

But wait, your client just found out that his mortgage application was not approved by the bank. What happens next? You’d probably need to re-start the process to find another property that your client can afford. 

To prevent such scenarios, it’d be helpful if agents have a deeper understanding of the home mortgage process to ensure that their deal gets through. 

Watch this video for a quick summary, or read on below for the full details!

Do Your Homework Before Viewing

Before your clients start any viewing, it could be helpful to have them understand what they can afford first. This will minimise frustration on both sides in case they find a property they like but cannot afford. To do that, simply make use of PropertyGuru’s affordability calculator to find out their property budget, which can help them to narrow down their choices. 

Through its interactive interface, you can easily adjust your affordability by sliding on the scale – and watch the numbers change right before your very eyes, so you can witness the impact firsthand! Plus our affordability calculator also uses 3 scenarios to calculate your affordability, based on MAS regulations. 

So what you see there, is as close to what you’ll get in reality.

After finding an ideal property that fits their budget and other criteria, the next thing you need to do is to help them get through the loan application process. This can be easy but may require you to let your clients understand the criteria and documents needed to make the process a successful one. 

1. Obtain an In-Principle Approval (IPA) 

An IPA allows your clients to know what their borrowing capacity is before going ahead with a home loan application. It is a non-binding approval issued by banks that is usually valid for 30 days. According to PropertyGuru’s Consumer Sentiment Study H2 2020, it is found that an ‘Approval in Principle’ gives property seekers greater confidence in their home search. Nearly half apply for getting quicker loan approvals. Older Singaporeans are less likely to apply for it at all. 

Potential buyers usually go through the processes below before obtaining an IPA:

• Work out a rough estimate of the loan amount
• Have an idea of the type of property they are intending to purchase (HDB/Private)
• Compare different mortgage packages and shortlist a few
• Send in a few applications for IPA to different banks at the same time 
• Check to ensure they meet the prevailing Mortgage Servicing Ratio (MSR) limit before committing to a purchase of an EC or HDB. You can direct them to PropertyGuru’s MSR calculator.

These are usually the documents that will be required when you apply for an IPA.

• Completed and signed property loan application form
• Copy of NRIC/Passport of applicant(s)
• Income documents which include the latest 3 computerised payslips/IR8A form
• Option to purchase
• Latest CPF statement of account (if CPF usage is involved)
• Latest CPF withdrawal statement for existing property (if applicable)
• Option of sale for existing property (if applicable)

2. Choosing a Suitable Home Loan

First-time home buyers may consult you regarding the type of home loan they should take up – bank or HDB loan, fixed or variable rate? Alongside, there are other considerations they should take note too, including:

• Loan-to-Value ratio
• Downpayment
• Loan tenure
• Income ceiling (for direct HDB purchases or those with grants)
• Early repayment penalty
• Interest rates
• Minimum loan amount
• Total Debt Servicing ratio
• MSR (for HDB properties)

The list can go on, especially with ever-changing policies. So it’s best to consult with your Personal Home Loan Assistant for the most updated recommendations! 

Banks will process your client’s application while checking their credit-worthiness and all relevant documents.

Typically, an IPA approval takes around 1 week and is valid for a month. If all goes well, your clients will get their mortgage approval easily with the steps mentioned above. The good news is, PropertyGuru Finance is able to help with securing your client’s IPA; be it from banks that likely have the highest chances of approval or from a bank of your choice.

You just let your Personal Home Loan Assistant know, and he/she will take care of the rest for you.  He/she is dedicated to making sure your clients enjoy the best rates applicable to them and keeping you updated along the entire process (so you never lose touch of your customer and your income).

While as an agent, you may not need to know in detail the mortgage process, it helps to give you credibility and improve your personal brand and reputation. 

Find out how PropertyGuru Finance can help you build a stronger personal brand. WhatsApp us now!

Since we’re looking at the last month of 2020, let’s make it a special local issue – welcome to the HDB edition of your monthly When & Where to Focus Your Listings!

Starting 2020, around 20,000 HDB units will hit MOP annually! (That is 1,667 units a month or 55 units per day!) Read more here.

Couple this with the HDB Enhanced CPF Housing Grant (EHG) launched in 2019, buying resale units will now become even more accessible for property seekers.

If your client needs help understanding their HDB’s MOP better, send them this Property Guide!

Repost HDB Listings at Up to 40% Reduced Rates

We heard you regarding HDB repost pricing! To help our valued Agent Partners ride this wave, starting from 10 December 2020, we launched a HDB Repost New Ad Credits Consumption Guide, with adjusted rates at up to 40% lower than before. Now, you can push up the ranking of your HDB listings and gain additional exposure at a lower investment, from as low as 3 Ad Credits.

There’s no end date for this – so don’t miss this chance to fully utilise your Auto-Repost function! More FAQs.

Next, let’s get down to the main insights!

When to Focus Your HDB Listings

With up to 40% reduced rates on your HDB Repost, let’s look at how you can further maximise this!

Looking at how your clients searched for HDBs last month, we can see that HDB searches boast a steadily high volume of views throughout most of the week. This is unlike what you might’ve seen in our previous edition where we looked at views for all listings.

As you can see in the graph below, 6 days of the week see very healthy viewership – with Sunday being the winner and Tuesday following behind very closely.

However, given the numbers, don’t underestimate the volumes between Wednesday to Saturday either! Volume might not be as high as Tuesdays and Sundays, but they’re not insignificant either.

For this consistently high volume of views for HDB listings, we believe it could be credited to:

• PropertyGuru having a substantial lead on the top 3 search keywords for HDB-seeking consumers; so, you get high-intent viewers
• We also reap in the highest traffic volume; so you get maximum exposure for all property types, including your HDB listings!
• And when we combine high-intent viewers and highest traffic volume, we are therefore able to deliver the greatest number of leads compared to any other property portal for HDB listings.

HDB-seekers behave differently on viewing times compared to others. They spike around lunchtime (12PM-3PM) then it takes a bit of a dip between 4PM-7PM and rockets up from 8PM onwards, as compared to general seekers which have a gradual decline from 12PM to 11PM.

This could be due to their behaviour of browsing for property during their lunch break, then having to prep for dinner and taking care of the family between 4PM-7PM (or work!). So, they typically only have the time and mindspace to properly view HDB listings toward the end of the day – 8PM-11PM.

Tip: Don’t miss out on these high traffic timings with Auto-Repost and Auto-Boost!

Where to Focus Your Listings

Serangoon and Thomson (D19-20) continue being popular amongst HDB-seekers; outpacing other districts significantly.

However even though D19-20 won the popularity award, you really should try to look at North (D25-28) or even West (D22-24) as they have a large market gap; meaning there are plenty more views than listing supply in that district, and you need to help fill that demand!

Bonus: HDB Edition!

What’s important to note is that, out of the large portion of residential listing views, HDB listings alone account for 40% of residential demand!

Super Bonus: 50% Rebate on Repost for non-Boost HDB Listings

Capitalise on the rising HDB supply even more!

Get 50% rebate on your Ad Credits used when:

• You have minimum 2 HDB non-Boost listing Reposts 

• Between 10 December (00:00 hours) to 12 December (23:59 hours)

Learn how it works.

Get down to sprucing up your HDB listings by putting up the listing’s best photos and write listing descriptions that sell. Your property seekers are awaiting!

Thanks for checking out this month’s edition of ‘When & Where to Focus Your Listings’ – stay tuned for next month’s update!

Being a better partner for you,
PropertyGuru Team

It’s a never-ending race and battle to win; especially in this hyper-competitive market you’re in.

There’s always a newer project, a better development, a more promising listing and newer and hungrier real estate professionals emerging every single day.

If you want to continue staying in the race (and winning it), you cannot merely work hard – you need to work smart by optimising your listings’ performances with these tools.

Best news of all is all these tools are readily available and easily accessible to you right now.

So, let’s begin!

The first step to take before embarking on any journey, is to know where you are now; so you can pick the right direction.

And the best way you can do this is by checking out your individual listing’s Listing Performance Insights on AgentNet.

Now that you get a feel of where each of your listings are at – it’s time to act!

Boost Your Way to the Top

Boost is your best friend on AgentNet. Why?

With Boost, you enjoy 3 awesome benefits!

1. Rank higher than regular listings

Give your listings the exposure they need and put them in front of our 5 million monthly visitors.

2. Get your face on it

Regular listings only come with the Agent Partner’s name, but Boost listings come with your Agent Profile picture too!

Help your clients put a face to your name and grow your own personal branding.

3. Cut out the distractions

Boost listings’ detail pages are totally ads-free – so you get 100% of your client’s attention.

Tip: Ease your work and automate your Boost date and time through Auto-Boost!

P.S. Don’t forget to Repost your listing too, so it can be the ‘freshest’ and rank the highest possible!

Stand in the Spotlight

Don’t be shy – be outstanding!

Spotlight your listings now and give them the visual and branding uplift they deserve to stand out from other listings. Not only is your Headline prominently displayed, you also get:

• Larger Search Results Tile and Profile Photo: most of us are visual people, so this is a huge win!
• Grey Gradient: We did consumer research on this and found that listings with this grey gradient enjoyed significantly higher engagement.
• Image Carousel: All your client needs to do is swipe to view more listing photos directly on the search results page
• Direct Contact: Your Spotlight listing comes with a contact feature, so your client can reach out to you as soon as possible!

Know When & Where to Capture Your Leads

Have you been up to date with our monthly edition of When & Where to Focus Your Listings?

In the last week of every month, we bring you insightful and actionable analysis based on the latest consumer data. Here’s November 2020’s edition!

Through these findings, you get to understand when your clients are most actively searching for property and which districts have market opportunities for you.

So, head on over to your AgentNet and start optimising your listings’ performance right now!

There are tonnes more ways for you to leverage and maximise your AgentNet. Head on over to PropertyGuru Academy to see our latest courses and get the most out of being our Agent Partner.

In the meantime, keep positive and test negative!

Being a better partner for you,
PropertyGuru Team

“Can you share some tips for choosing a mortgage loan?”
“Which home loan is the best currently?”

The questions above could sound quite familiar to you. While recommending your client a suitable home loan isn’t quite the main job of a property agent, being knowledgeable about the different types of mortgages available can help you to successfully close the deal, and make you appear more professional and knowledgeable in the industry. In turn, this will earn you credibility and gain trust from your clients, who could refer their friends and family to you in the future.

3 Differentiating Factors of Home Loans

The various types of home loans available in Singapore can be rather daunting for a first-time property buyer and as a real estate professional, your advice can be golden. Home loans can be differentiated by 3 different factors:

1. HDB or Bank Loans

There are differences between a HDB housing loan and a bank mortgage loan. These include eligibility for loan, the amount of downpayment you’d need to fork out in cash, interest rates and the loan-to-value ratio. Each has its own pros and cons and would require a look at your client’s financial situation to determine the loan that best serves their interest.

2. Fixed or Floating Rate

A mortgage loan with a fixed rate means the interest rate pegged to the loan is fixed for a certain period, usually for 2 or 3 years. After the fixed interest rate period is over, the interest rate for the loan will be pegged to SIBOR/SORA, Fixed Deposit Rate (FDR) or other reference rates determined by the bank.
On the other hand, a floating rate loan means the interest rate pegged to the loan is based on a variable rate – when the interest rate changes, your monthly instalments vary as well.

3. Different Types of Interests

You might have heard of SIBOR, SOR, FDR and SORA. They may not be easy to explain to the layman, but just note that Singapore is phasing out SOR and SIBOR to be replaced by SORA – Singapore Overnight Rate Average – in the next 3 to 4 years.
Certain mortgages may also peg their rates to a 6-month or 12-month SIBOR – the underlying implication is that shorter-term rates are usually more volatile than longer term ones.

Knowing Your Client’s Persona

Finding a loan with the lowest interest rate doesn’t mean it necessarily suits your client. Similar to matchmaking, there are mountains of considerations to be mindful of, as every individual is different.
You’ll soon know that individuals at various stages of the property-financing journey will have their unique set of considerations to take note of.
As such, it might be useful to understand the persona that is the most similar to your client – so you can get that much closer to giving them the customised advice they need from you.

Couple Buying a Resale HDB

For couples who do not want to get a BTO, a resale HDB could be an alternative. For first-time home buyers, your role as an agent could be pivotal in helping them choose a suitable home loan.
If they can afford the higher downpayment of 25% of purchase price (with 5% in cash, remaining 20% can be taken from CPF OA), a bank loan might be a better option since it is usually lower in interest rate compared to HDB housing loan’s 2.6% interest.
If saving money on interest is a huge priority, you could also advise them to use cash to service their monthly repayments so they can avoid the accrued interest if using CPF to pay for their instalments.

Private Property Buyers

For those looking to purchase private properties such as a condominium, a defining factor for their loan type would be whether the property is a Building Under Construction (BUC) or has already been built.

For the former, buyers will need to take out a BUC loan – the loan disbursement will follow what is known as a Progressive Payment Scheme (PPS) where the monthly repayments will be paid on a staggered basis in tandem with the property’s construction progress. This type of loan will typically be based on a floating rate.

Property Investors Buying a Second Property

For investors looking at using their second property for rental income, the key here is to try to have the rent cover their monthly mortgage. In such cases, getting a fixed rate loan could provide stability and make the tracking of their return on investments (ROI) a simpler process.

All these can be complicated and honestly, there is no such thing as “the best mortgage”.

There is only “the best mortgage for your client”.

And to achieve that, you need to be familiar with the latest bank rates and updates as well as your client’s financial situation.

All these can be tiring and time-consuming, and distracts you from focusing on your other property listings, which is why PropertyGuru Finance offers every Agent Partner your own Personal Home Loan Assistant to support your clients with the most suitable home loan recommendations while keeping you updated every step of the way.

Contact your Personal Home Loan Assistant today and get started on matching your clients to the most suitable mortgage!

Being a better partner for you, 
PropertyGuru Team

Hello to all our fabulous Agent Partners in Singapore! It’s time again for another update on When and Where to Focus Your Listings.

The COVID-19 situation in Singapore looks to be promising (let’s keep our fingers crossed) and there’s buzz going around about Phase 3! Don’t forget to claim your TraceTogether token by the end of the year, though.

So, with things steadily looking up, let’s see if our findings are the same!

Psst, you’ll also notice that this edition has received some upgrades. If you have any feedback or ideas on how we can better improve this monthly article for you, we’d love to hear from you!

When to Focus Your Listings

In contrast to our October edition, it looks like consumers’ behaviour is slowly shifting away from weekdays. You’ll notice the consumer picks up traction on Saturday, then peaks over Sunday to Monday and starts tapering off Tuesday onwards.

We think this could be due to more and more offices reopening again, and your consumers’ daily lifestyles are shifting (yet again). Alongside, children being back in school is likely a huge influence too.

I have a personal hunch on why Sunday has the highest volume of views!

Now families are able to gather more; means grandchildren can be taken care of by grandparents on weekends; means parents have more ‘free time’ to browse for property. What do you think?

Nothing much has changed with the time your clients are browsing for property. It’s good to see they’re not-so-active between 12AM-7AM; indicating a healthier lifestyle!

Then you can see the traffic picks up at 8AM onwards, then peaks between 12PM-3PM, and continues steadily till 11PM.

Where to Focus Your Listings

This section is where you should really be experiencing an upgrade to the article! We’re no longer content with just showing you which districts have the highest search volumes; you deserve to know more than that.

But first, let’s look at things from a macro point-of-view. Serangoon/Thomson (D19-20) continue to be very popular amongst property seekers, with City & South West (D01-08) also maintaining its appeal.

Now let’s zoom in a little bit more! Here’s a look at the district clusters and the respective volume of searches, with their volume of listings for comparison.

No doubt, Serangoon/Thomson (D19-20) and City & South West (D01-08) win the popularity contest – but they also have relatively higher number of listings catering to their demand.

Now, dear Agent Partner, the real question is – where is the market gap?

By answering this, you’ll know exactly where there’s a higher demand versus supply; therefore, you’ll have a higher chance of getting leads and closing a sale!

After doing the math, here’s a look at how much more views the districts have, versus their listings.

The good news is all districts currently have significantly more demand than supply.

However, if you want to look at the one with the most ‘unmet demand’, North (D25-28) is the winner – with close to 8 times more views than there are listings!

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t look at the other district clusters, though! As we called out earlier, all the districts have significant demand and have property seekers waiting for you to open doors to their next property purchase.

That’s a wrap for this month’s edition – we really hope you found these upgrades to the article useful! If you have any feedback or more ideas on how we can improve this monthly article for you, please reach out.

In the meantime, continue staying safe while you go about your work and we’ll catch you at our next article!

Being a better partner for you, 
PropertyGuru Team.

When you’re a property agent, you don’t just facilitate the transaction of a building.

You’re there to realise the dream of a lifetime.

The dream of a young couple looking for their first nest as they spread their wings in the world; to the dream of a place for their growing family to call ‘home’ and so much more.

The dreams you help realise touch the lives of every person every single day – and this means you’re more than just an agent, you’re a trusted advisor of a lifetime.

But you’re likely facing this challenge…

Every client is different and the market is constantly changing – how are you able to provide credible and customised advice to your clients in a sustainable manner?

“From the start, there were huge gaps to be filled,”
– Rex Tan, Huttons (Rex Tan Division)

A prominent division director at Huttons, Rex is no stranger to the nooks and crannies of a property agent’s daily life – and quickly identified the need for a technology that:

• Gives agents more transparency
• Enables effective client communication
• Supports agents with innovation

Here’s how Rex and his team of trusted leaders’ very own Rex Tan Division’s (RTD) Intelligence Report takes on these challenges head on when agents are selling new property developments.

Giving Agents More Transparency

Once you have more transparency, you can therefore give your clients more informed advice; allowing them to feel like they can rely on you.

“RTD’s Intelligence Report is powered by data from official local government sources,”
– Dave Choy, Huttons (Rex Tan Division)

RTD takes their data source very seriously; which is why they only accept and use data from legitimate and reliable government sources like URA, Master Plan and OneMap.

In fact, RTD takes this extra seriously – because their Intelligence Report extracts all ‘live’ data from URA, and promotions and discounts from developers as soon as they’re updated.

“Our clients can conclude at a glance whether or not they’re getting a good deal,
– Terence Soon and Sherlyn Goh, Huttons (Rex Tan Division)

Through this level of transparency, agents are able to build a credible image to clients.

Enabling Effective Client Communication

After you’ve discovered developments you can represent from FastKey Projects, what’s next?

Everyone’s property demands and budgets differ from each other, and from time to time.

The thing about property consulting is that there is no ‘one-size-fit-all’ solution you can give to your clients. But how are you to do individualised prep work for your client, when there’s all that extensive research on top of your hectic daily schedule?

Here’s the good news:

“Each RTD’s Intelligence Report is tailored and generated for individual clients automatically,”
– Ryan Choy, Huttons (Rex Tan Division)

RTD’s Intelligence Report truly is intelligent! With a click of a button, it enables you to be ready for that sales pitch.

Combining all of the information you can share about your client’s specifications (their budgets, location criteria and other requirements), it matches against real-time data to generate a ready-to-use report that’s fully customised to your unique client.

Supporting Agents with Innovation

Typically, each of those individualised reports takes long hours on end to research and generate. But agents in RTD have freed up precious resources through this innovation.

“RTD has turned this pain into power and this power into growth,”
– Hugo Xu, Huttons (Rex Tan Division)

At the end of the day, it’s all about delivering value to your clients. So why not harness the powers of technology to bring your success one step (or more) further?

“There are various tools that help present our clients with a broader perspective,”
– Jeremy Lim, Huttons (Rex Tan Division)

Equipping yourself with everything RTD’s Intelligence Report has to offer, it becomes easier to provide credible and customised advice to your clients in a sustainable manner.

But of course, things don’t just stop here.

There’s always tomorrow to look forward to and plan for – but the choice is always yours to make.

“In this fast-changing industry, change is inevitable, while growth is optional,”
– Fendy Lee, Huttons (Rex Tan Division)

PropertyGuru would like to thank Rex, Ryan, Jeremy, Terence, Sherlyn, Dave, Hugo and Fendy for sharing about this exciting launch with us and most of all, for your invaluable partnership.

If you’d like to find out more information about RTD’s Intelligence Report, you can contact the RTD team here.

– PropertyGuru Team

Say Hello to: 

With the new Partner360 programme, we are committed to empower PropertyGuru Agent Partners with a suite of solutions and privileges that all our Agent Partners can benefit from.

As an Agent Partner on PropertyGuru, you’re already part of a powerful community of over 45,000 other real estate professionals in Southeast Asia who utilize the platform to reach out to more than 23 million property seekers monthly.

And now, with PropertyGuru Partner360 you can elevate yourself even further!

Introducing PropertyGuru Partner360

Empowering you in every aspect of your career

Some of you have spoken to us. We’ve listened and are now proud to unveil PropertyGuru Partner360. Partner360 is our always-on commitment to empower agents partners every step of the way, 365 days a year.

360° of Empowerment from Us

To receive 360° empowerment means we want to be able to support you in every aspect of your agent career.

Partner360 doesn’t just stop there! It’s a continuous cycle of commitment that we have for our Agent Partners.

You can expect constant updates on Partner360, and even progress information behind-the-scenes; because we want to make sure we keep our partnership with you transparent and consistent.

You’ll be hearing and seeing us continuously roll out more and better products and service level upgrades over the year – with the simple goal to bring you more success as a real estate professional.

Taking You Places with Partner360

Since the beginning of 2020, we’ve already started rolling out new and updated offerings … and we’re not stopping!

Here’s what we did, and a sneak preview of what’s coming up next:

Stay tuned for these exciting new launches coming your way (end-2020 to 2021):

• Further Enhanced AgentNet App – that’s right, we’re not stopping! You told us that being empowered on-the-go is important to you, so this is important to us too.
• PropertyGuru Academy 2.0 (New and Improved!) – We understand the demands of being an agent today – upskill and learn how to manage your business and clients in today’s modern world Plus, you’ll also get to receive accredited certifications.
• Prestige Rewards – our exclusive programme to show our appreciation for our most loyal and supportive Agent Partners; look forward to a more rewarding experience with dedicated services and premium offerings.
• Elite Rewards – a suite of rewards for all Agent Partners; one of the ways we want to say ‘thank you’ for your trust in us as your business partner.
• Improved Agent Partner Personal Branding – we want to make sure you have the tools you need to stand-out and leave an impression on your clients.
• Improved Customer Excellence – your experience matters to us and we’re continuously working to make it better for you.
• … More and Better Products!

We’re very excited to share PropertyGuru Partner360, but we’re even more excited to hear what you have to say about it – and how else can we support your success as our Agent Partner?

Let us know by dropping us at email at custcare@propertyguru.com.sg to share ideas, or simply to say ‘hi’ to our new PropertyGuru Partner360 programme Find out more details of Partner360 here.

We’re excited and as always, look forward to a future of possibilities with you.

– PropertyGuru Team

Want a recap of any of the previous launches?

• FastKey Projects – a ready-made new developments sales kit; opening doors to over 500 projects locally and regionally for you.
• PropertyGuru Finance – close your deals faster and more effortlessly, and earn 100% Referral Rewards by referring a mortgage application.
• PropertyGuru Expert Series – we invite the best to speak at these ‘live’ and interactive sessions, so you can become the best agent you can be.
• Enhanced AgentNet App – building in more features, functionalities and a friendlier user-experience; so you can work effectively anytime, anywhere.

In this edition, we are going to look at When and Where to Focus Your Listings in the month of October – plus a special bonus treat!

While many people are prepping for Halloween, let’s check out to see if our findings are just as spooky!

Speaking of spooky, these past 6 months have been a real whirlwind for real estate professionals in Singapore (actually, around the whole world too).

It all started in April and physical viewings were no longer permitted – our world was topsy-turvy, and experts warned us to expect the worst. But let’s start looking at the historical facts of how our industry weathered this global pandemic in Singapore.

So, your special bonus treat this month is:

Volume Of Agents’ Listings Vs. Volume of Consumers’ Listing Views

Now that we’ve crossed the 6-month mark, let’s look at how much your clients have been interacting with your listings:

From the graph above, we can confirm these facts:

• Client viewings surpass total number of listings by at least 50x 
  This means your clients are searching and viewing much more than you are posting.
• Your clients’ interest maintained steadily over the past 6 months
  Contrary to some of our worst fears; your clients actually got more engaged over the Circuit Breaker period!
• Real estate agents are still aggressively putting up listings
  Despite the odds, agents have been steadily putting up listings for their clients without fail throughout the months. PropertyGuru thanks you for your support!
  Don’t lose out to competition – go into AgentNet now to Boost, repost and Spotlight! (Find out information on our Premium Features here.)

So, we’ve just advised you to Boost, repost and Spotlight.

Your next question will be when you should do those things; so that you can enjoy the highest return-of-investment on your Ad Credits!

When to Focus Your Listings?

We want to be honest here – property seekers’ behaviour in September got us really asking questions.

While property seekers are viewing your listings more than before, the distribution during the week has shifted drastically!

Previously when we looked at August’s data, Tuesday reigned champion – but it dropped significantly and shifted to Thursday this time.

Throughout the past 6 months, property seekers’ behaviour has been changing quite a bit and this is likely attributed to how our daily lives have been changing too.

However if there’s one thing that remains consistent – is that they’re usually most active between Mondays to Thursdays.

Okay, there are actually two things that remain consistent…

Property seekers are still most active between 12PM to 3PM – don’t miss out on targeting them!

But we know with all your viewings and mountains of other to-dos, it can be hard to keep up. Which is why you should utilise Auto-Repost and Auto-Boost!

This way, you just need to focus on closing your sales and let us take care of this for you.

Now you know the best day of the week and time of the day – let’s check out the popularity of the districts.

Where to Focus Your Listings?

Districts 11, 21 seem to have dropped quite a bit in interest – but we need to look at this in relative terms. The actual number of homes and individuals looking for homes in D11, 21 are definitely lower than most other parts of Singapore; therefore even though it looks low in comparison, it shouldn’t be a cause to worry.

Interestingly, D19-20 shot up in popularity over September!

We hope you found this issue as insightful (or even more insightful) as all the previous ones! Stay tuned for the next one in November.

In the meantime, continue staying safe!

– PropertyGuru Team

You’re almost at the finish line of your deal and on the verge of getting your hard-earned commission fee. After all the investments, marketing, and viewings of the listing, you’ve finally reached the mortgage and financing phase of the deal with your client.

This phase is often the most daunting and uncertain part of any deal. There’s just so much research, coordination, and negotiations with financial institutions to be done. And even after that there’s the “waiting and hoping” period for a notification that the loan was successfully secured.

But why is there so much work you need to do to get through this phase?

Well, a lot of it boils down to the top 3 mortgage needs your client has. They are:

#1: Getting Familiar with Mortgage Solutions

Here’s a few questions they don’t teach us in school: What is SIBOR? Or what are the pros and cons of getting a fixed rate mortgage?

You can refer your clients to a banker who can help them with the answers. But most property seekers would prefer to do their own research before doing so. This can be challenging – rates change on an almost daily basis, not to mention the many “insider tips and tricks” that the layman will not be aware of.

And on your end, keeping up with the rate changes and updating your clients can be tedious. The good news is that you can simply ask your clients to visit PropertyGuru Finance. There they will find all the latest rates on new home loans and refinancing, so they will have a clearer idea of what is out there when they come back to you.

#2: Choosing a Home Loan Solution That’s Suitable and Available to Them 

With well over a hundred home loan packages available at any one time, many clients face the “paradox of choice” – being paralysed by having too many choices. According to our Consumer Sentiment Study H2 2020, a third of our respondents listed “too many choices” as their main barrier to applying for a bank loan.

They may look to you to narrow it down for them. But this still leaves you with the task of determining which loan packages will both suit them and be available to them.

Doing this properly requires deeply understanding your clients’ financial lives, and this can get pretty tricky or even uncomfortable for some. Many clients are also extra careful about what they reveal, something you can’t blame them for, especially when you consider that a mere 0.3% difference in interest rates for a S$500,000 mortgage can equate to over S$25,000 extra in interest payments alone.
Here, our Mortgage Affordability Calculator can help both you and your clients save and narrow down their options by letting them know exactly how much in home loans they can afford.

#3: Getting All that Paperwork Down 

Even after your clients have chosen their desired home loan package, there is still a tonne of paperwork they must submit to the banks to secure their loan. They may enlist your help in this, which is not only tedious but will end up taking up valuable time you could be using to work on your other deals. 

And if they choose the DIY route, they may find it confusing and end up taking too long, which may cause them to lose the loan – and your commission along with it. Our survey supports this, with 1 in 5 Singaporeans citing long processing times and lack of easy status checks as major barriers to their home loan applications.

One reason for such delays could be the lack of awareness about ‘Approvals in Principle’ (AIPs). Our survey revealed that almost a third of Singaporeans don’t know what an AIP is, and less than half of respondents apply for one. This is despite believing that getting an AIP would give them greater confidence in their home search, faster approval, and knowledge as to which banks are willing to give them a larger loan.

Of course, applying for an AIP also requires lots of tedious paperwork – and here again your clients might turn to you for help or risk messing up the application if they do it themselves.

But here’s the good news we want to share with you today. ALL these mortgage needs your client has is 100% addressable – and best of all, you can do it in a super easy manner that even allows you to earn bonus Ad Credits on top of your commissions.

Introducing PropertyGuru Finance’s Home Loan Referral Programme

This programme is specifically designed to help our Agent Partners “outsource” all their clients’ mortgage needs – without losing out on any commissions.

Here’s what referring your clients to the programme can do for you.

A. We’ll Handle All Your Clients’ Enquiries 

Let our trusty team of advisors be the ones to answer all your clients’ questions and allay their concerns. You should just focus on bringing success to your other listings.

B. We’ll Matchmake Your Clients with the Best Loans Possible 

Thanks to our strategic ties with the banks, we can select the best and most suitable mortgage solutions for your clients. We will also assign you a Personal Home Loan Assistant, who will be dedicated to understanding your clients’ unique financing needs. Your client will be in good hands.

C. We’ll Guide Them Through all the Paperwork 

Leave all the tedious paperwork and admin to your trusty Personal Home Loan Assistant. They will handle all the coordination and follow-ups with your clients. You’ll also get timely status updates through the entire process – all part of the personalised service we provide.

All you need to do is refer your client to PropertyGuru Finance for their home loan solutions and you can speed all the way to the finish line with no roadblocks. 

Best part of it all, you’ll enjoy even better rewards through us! 

On top of the referral commission you rightfully earn, you will also receive bonus Ad Credits – which you can use to promote your other listings and create even more success. 

You can find out more about PropertyGuru Finance’s referral programme for agents by visiting here or by contacting your very own Personal Home Loan Assistant now!

While most Singaporeans his age are moving into or living in their BTOs, 32-year-old Aaron Wan just moved into his S$7 million, freehold, close to 10,000² ft landed property in District 15.

And this purchase was made through these uncertain times of COVID-19, to boot.

The immense success this young PropNex division leader was not by sheer luck or coincidence; Aaron strictly adhered himself to a lifestyle that is now the cornerstone of his very own ‘28’ programme.

“’28’ helps agents understand the consequence of not working hard and to understand the true price of success.” – Aaron Wan, PropNex

Even now as you read this, ‘28’ is helping multiple agents in Aaron Wan’s Division achieve their success through a 3-month dedicated lifestyle; with some of them managing to earn S$300,000 in income during the programme.

So what can you expect out of ‘28’?

Nurturing Support System

“Become a better version of yourself.” – Aaron Wan, PropNex

If you’ve chosen to be part of ‘28’, you become part of a group of other supportive and helpful individuals that all share a common goal of succeeding as property agents.

Every single agent has his or her own journey to take and ‘28’ helps them accelerate in developing their own unique winning formula and most of all – discovering who they are as property agents.

A High Discipline Environment Specially for Property Agents

“You cannot only think about what you want to do tomorrow, tomorrow.”
– Aaron Wan, PropNex

Be warned though, ‘28’ really isn’t for the faint-hearted.

After speaking to Aaron, it was clear he demands for 100% commitment from the participants in ‘28’.

And there’s a really good reason behind this – by building an environment that cultivates a high-level of discipline and drive, Aaron has been able to help his agents push beyond limits they thought they had.

And one major part of this is how he emphasizes everyone needs to plan and share with the team what their day will be like tomorrow; so that every single member is maximising their next 24 hours.

Crazy (and) Passionate Leader

“I have to be there for those who have given me their trust.”
– Aaron Wan, PropNex

Being ‘crazy’ is something Aaron seems to pride himself in; he showed his crazy levels of dedication, discipline and most of all, passion.

What really stuck while talking to Aaron was the amount of responsibility he seemed to have over his agents; it’s clear Aaron is the sort of leader who will almost stop at nothing to help his team succeed through his mentoring.

PropertyGuru would like to thank Aaron for this chance to share his story and the incredible work he’s been doing these years in the property industry. You can find out more about Aaron Wan here.

– PropertyGuru Team

In our previous article, How To Run A Successful Virtual Property Tour, we have shown you useful tips to conduct virtual tours as we progress into the ‘new normal’. The COVID-19 pandemic has left long-lasting effects on the property market, so let’s look at what these changes are and how you can leverage on them.

Elevate Your Online Presence

There’s no denying that we spend a huge amount of time online, but COVID-19 has accelerated digital activity to a whole new level. As we spend more time at home, we also spend more time online. And this behaviour is likely to continue, extending to property seekers too.

And based off data data was gathered since June, PropertyGuru.com.sg has seen 92% more property searches, 102% more listing views and 188% increase in leads.

As an agent, building your online presence has never been more than important than before. Join our complimentary training by PropertyGuru Academy to support you and bring greater online exposure to your business.

Virtual Tours And Videos

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a thousand pictures. Property seekers are looking for ways to view properties without leaving the safety and comforts of their homes. Check out How To Run A Successful Virtual Property Tour for tips to set up a virtual tour.

Besides virtual tours, you can also draw attention to your listings by posting pre-recorded property and testimonial videos to build credibility for yourself.

Be A Trusted Advisor To Your Clients

We must never forget that our clients rely on us to keep abreast of the latest news, especially during this period. As property agents today, your capabilities have extended beyond sales to be more consultative. It has become even more important for you to keep your clients updated on market trends and government directives.

Schedule time for virtual consultations with potential sellers or buyers even if they do not have the intention to sell or buy a property at the moment. Advise homeowners/sellers to take actionable steps, e.g. re-layout of furniture or minor renovations, to increase the value of their property for the time when they eventually decide to sell.

Online Tech Tools For Your Business

As we enter into the ‘new normal’ with property seekers becoming more digitally engaged, it’s time to take your business online. If you haven’t, start setting up online tools and processes such as e-contracts signing and accepting online payments. Here are some applications that are useful to prepare digital documents and streamline your business process.

• Affordability calculator: An online calculator that determines how much your clients can afford for their next property purchase
• PDF Reader: Most documents sent by developers are saved in PDF format, so information may be not easily editable. Thus, having a trusty PDF reader on your mobile phone is useful to sign documents on-the-go.
• DOC Scanner: This is a document scanner mobile application. Just take a photo of the document and save it as a JPEG or PDF file. You can also easily share these files with your clients via email or mobile chat applications.

Entering The ‘New Normal’ With Safe Property Viewings

Eventually, life will return to normalcy. International borders will open, quarantine restrictions will be lifted, face-to-face viewings and open houses will recover in full strength. As we look forward to this time to come, check out our guide on how you can start Entering The “New” Normal With Safe Property Viewings.

Stay strong and let’s move forward together! We wish you all the best. See you on our next article!

#GuruCares #SGunited #PGStandByYou

– PropertyGuru Team

Find out how FastKey Projects can help you open more opportunities, and help you deliver beyond expectation to your clients, while at the same time win you some extra Ad Credits.

What is FastKey Projects?

Here’s a quick recap of this exciting addition to AgentNet!

FastKey Projects is your trusty sales tool that gives you instant access to full project information and opens overseas market income for your business. With this ready-made e-sales kit, you can now easily and conveniently share project information with your clients through your mobile device.

Essentially opening doors of opportunities to more than 500 developments within and beyond Singapore for you!

You can find out more information about how FastKey Projects brings you more opportunities here.

Read on to check out how FastKey Projects can help you win up to 3,000 Ad Credits!

Strong Demand for New Launches and Overseas Property

High demand for new launches

Did you know? According to Property Market Index Q3 2020, between April to June 2020, new launches made up 70.3% of total property sales!

This means that your clients are more in the market for brand new projects and they need you to advise them. The good news here is, FastKey Projects is here to help you with just that!

Singaporeans demonstrate high intent on purchasing overseas property

According to Property Consumer Sentiment Study H2 2020, 25% of Singaporeans own property or land overseas. And currently they’re showing the most interest in purchasing properties in Australia and Malaysia. Be it for investments, retirements or a vacation home – FastKey Projects can help you be an outstanding agent to your client, by helping you advise them what’s available and what’s best for their needs.

Win 3,000 Ad Credits (worth over S$2,200) with FastKey Projects

FastKey Projects is opening even more doors of opportunities for you because now every PropertyGuru Agent Partner stands to win 3,000 Ad Credits simply by taking part in our little quiz!

This means by discovering more development opportunities, you get the chance to increase exposure on your current listings too.

• Step 1: Visit FastKey Projects on AgentNet
• Step 2: Answer all 5 questions on this quiz correctly
  (Unsure of your answer? Refer to FastKey Projects and find your answers there.)
• Step 3: Stay tuned for winner announcements! Winners will be notified by 18 September via SMS.

For full details on the Terms & Conditions of the quiz, check out this Help Article.

11 Prizes Up for Win

If you’re one of the Agent Partners who select all the right answers, you stand a chance to win the Grand Draw for these prizes:

• Grand Prize: 1 Winner for 500 Ad Credits (worth S$375)
• Consolation Prize: 10 Winners for 250 Ad Credits each (worth S$187.50 each)

Visit FastKey Projects and Take Part in the Quiz Now

The quiz takes about 5-10 minutes and all their answers can be found within FastKey Projects on your AgentNet.

Discover more opportunities through FastKey Projects and stand to win Ad Credits today!

– PropertyGuru Team

August has been a relatively good month so far!

Not only did we celebrate our nation’s 55th birthday, we also experienced a steady decrease in number of COVID-19 cases reported daily.

Fingers crossed; let’s hope things keep improving this way!

Now let’s look at how your property seekers were in the month of August on PropertyGuru. Last month, they were most active on Monday, between 12PM-3PM. With all these changes still happening in our everyday lives and more people returning to their offices for work, let’s see if anything has changed!

When to Focus Your Listings

Latest property seekers’ behaviour has been intriguing so far…

If we look back in the past 3 months (from our June, July and August editions), their behaviour happened in a linear manner. Meaning that if their number of visits spiked on Mondays, their visits took a gradual decrease over the week and started increasing again over Saturday and Sunday.

However, the latest data over August 2020 shows a daily fluctuation, with searches going up and down on alternate days.

Tuesday has taken the crown this month, with Monday following relatively closely behind. Friday remains as the day with the lowest traffic these few months, which makes sense, with Singaporeans going out and enjoying their ‘re-found’ freedom (whilst respecting social distancing and limitations to group size).

Although property seekers’ visits over the days differed quite dramatically, the timings of their visits remain consistent – with traffic picking up from 8AM onwards then peaking at 12PM-3PM and slowly tapering off through the day.

Where to Focus Your Listings?

Last month, Serangoon/Thomson (D19-20) won all over districts but our latest findings have taken a flip with City & South West (D01-08) surpassing all other districts significantly and Orchard/Holland (D09-10) in second place.

Changi/Pasir Ris (D17-18) continues to have the lowest number of searches.

The most noticeable change we can see is the significant drop in interest in North (D25-28) and West (D22-24).

In a nutshell, while it seems that our COVID-19 situation in Singapore has been steadily calming down over August; our property seekers visits are gaining traction and going through even more changes.

Stay tuned for our next edition!

#GuruCares #SGunited #PGStandByYou

– PropertyGuru Team