Tech investing: PropTech disrupts the way Singaporeans buy and sell their houses
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Photo by Photo by Shafina Subari on Unsplash
SINGAPORE – 30 November 2023 – Tech investing: PropTech disrupts the way Singaporeans buy and sell their houses
Video game-style animations have landed at your real estate portal. Like in virtual reality the prospective home buyer glides over a 3D map of Singapore, to zoom into a new condo development and inspect the surroundings and balcony views, even experiencing the sunlight exposure at a specific time of the day.
The showroom of the future is already available online and it emerged out of the Singaporean software factory Mogul.sg. Of the 160,000 buildings in Singapore, the company claims to have about 90% of the data, largely public data from trusted sources such as URA and HDB. This includes some future developments that are not built yet, but are already on sale.
It’s a game changer especially for private owners looking to sell or those searching for a new home. Its virtual agent only charges a minimal $150 listing fee, eliminating the agent commission entirely. The AI guides visitors to the desired object thanks to a sophisticated search engine that lets flat hunters filter and narrow down their options in a few minutes. Mogul currently lists around 29,000 objects. It claims to have completed its fastest transaction in merely 9 days.
The power of visualization
“Data visualization of real estate is in its early days if you compare it, for example, to stock trading,” says Gerald Sim, the founder and CEO. “Users these days are sophisticated and can comprehend high levels of details. The days of digital classifieds for real estate are a thing of the past.”
Sim founded the Mogul.sg in 2018 out of Singapore Land Authority’s incubator Geoworks and his friend, venture investor Thanit Apipatana, became his first investor. Apipatana is also a close advisor since the early days.
“I want to be part of this. It’s helping people save money. It solves real life problems,” said Apipatana.
The startup last year raised S$9 million (US$6.5 million) in its Series A, led by alternative investment firm Nech Capital and is already screening for a new round.
Sim’s team of over 50 mostly developers and mapping engineers is mainly focused on 3 core pillars: 3D maps, geospatial analytics and AI selling. The visual effects come from fast-loading animated maps. Rather than conventional raster maps, the site relies on vector graphics that are powered by a video gaming engine from a French developer. Sim plans to add more details on numerous HDB estates collecting satellite imagery with its computer vision API.
The true value of its maps comes from the estimated 70 million data points, publicly available data on services and amenities, such as public transport, schools and supermarkets, even the type of greenery in the area. They have also added some non-public sources, such as the location of EV charging points, from BlueSG and GetGo.
Analytics and valuations
Most importantly, visitors can find data on past property transactions that can serve as benchmarks for future sales. They see which floors and orientation are scoring higher prices, and compare how buildings of similar age are faring. “We give everyone the last 25 years of transparent, realistic and honest data,” Sim says.
Users can filter and analyze the data. They see how recent transactions compare to their budgets and the median price in the area. Candlestick charts, scatter plot graphs and regression lines help visualize and provide additional insights.
Based on this data, Mogul offers an automated valuation model, called the M Value. The result comes up instantaneously, other than in the traditional way, where these evaluations may take weeks. Sim says that Maybank studied the valuations and now accepts them as the basis for their home loan approvals. DBS, UOB and OCBC will join the platform from next year.
The company is further expanding its ancillary services which—beyond mortgage applications—will include support for home moving and renovations. A new feature recommends contractors based on future design requirements that homeowners can submit in the form of a picture. The platform will also be able to speed up identity verifications by extracting info from the Singpass app.
The agent of the future
While the establishment is frowning at Sim, users seem to enjoy the service. It is saving them money and a lot of hassle. Today’s mainly manual processes via phone will be even further simplified as generative AI takes over. It allows Mogul to serve its growing client base with a relatively small pool of agents.
Finding the right talent can be a struggle in the mobile-first economy. The fact that big tech has been trimmed hiring helped startups like Mogul. Sim reveals that developers are starting to reach out actively after reading about the firm in tech media, feeling excited about what they see online. “There is actually much more that we could show,” says Sim. “Our concern is that the end devices, phones and computers, might not be able to handle it.”
Looking forward, Sim plans to grow the company organically out of Singapore, expanding the local share, before venturing further afar. He doesn’t exclude Australia, the UK or Europe. “We have started mapping all of Southeast Asia,” he says. “In Singapore, we have relatively quickly reached around 4% market share. We see good traction.”
Showrooms are expensive to build. They cost millions of dollars and will be thrown away after a few months. There’s a significant carbon footprint with air conditioning running around the clock. Mogul is redefining the real estate showroom. And it appears that it has the zeitgeist on its side.
For more information, please contact:
Mogul.sg: customerservice@mogul.sg
This press release was published as it was received from our partner, without any editing from the Tech in Asia team.
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