Hot property: iProperty swoops up Thai real estate portal for $4.6M

The iProperty Group, a public, ASX-listed company that owns property listing sites across Asia, has made another acquisition. The Malaysia-based firm announced that it acquired Thailand’s ThinkOfLiving.

The purchase price consists of a base payment of approximately US$4.6 million in cash, US$1.5 million in newly-issued shares and a variable component dependent on the financial performance of the business, iProperty told Tech in Asia today.

The deal comes as no surprise as iProperty has swallowed local property portals in the past, including Squarefoot in Hong Kong and rumah123 Indonesia to name a few.

According to iProperty, The ThinkOfLiving brand will continue to operate as usual. “We currently have no plans to change its strong and leading brand name. There will be no changes to the team, just a stronger focus on certain areas of the market,” the company said in a statament.

Hot market

iProperty’s expansion occurs in a competitive environment, where many local sites claim to be leaders in their respective markets. Acquiring ThinkOfLiving to get a foot in the Thai market is a step to further cement iProperty’s amibitions for the region.

iProperty CEO Georg Chmiel said in a statement: “The Thailand market is estimated to spend A$120m (US$91.8 million) on real estate advertising each year, with the online share of those dollars at a similar level to that of Malaysia five years ago. ThinkofLiving.com already attracts more of those dollars than any other player and does so profitably.”

ThinkOfLiving’s revenues last year were in the order of US$2 million, and the company generated a profit margin in excess of 30 percent, iProperty told Tech in Asia.

There are competitors in Thailand’s property market, including Singapore-based PropertyGuru’s ddproperty, prakard, and Thaiproperty. But according to iProperty, ThinkOfLiving’s strength is its partnerships with property developers, while competitors focus more on the agent segment. “All top 20 developers in Thailand subscribe to its services, with a total of 106 property developers currently active as clients of the portal,” says Chmiel in a statement.

Leading position?

iProperty proclaims itself to be the dominant brand and leading operator of property websites in the region, though Singapore’s well-funded PropertyGuru is also vying for that position.

PropertyGuru acquired Thailand’s ddproperty in 2011.

iProperty’s rapid expansion and acquistion strategy has been criticised. An in-depth report from Digital News Asia in August 2014 said that iProperty was facing widening losses, and that the losing traffic leadership to PropertyGuru in Singapore should be a cause for concern.

SeeThe PropertyGuru Story, as Told by Co-Founder Steve Melhuish