In the month of May, the world, in particularly Malaysia joint in the celebration in knowing that 12 year-old NayatiMoodliar was safely returned to his family unharmed, after being abducted and held captive for a week. While the celebrations continued and police worked towards capturing the perpetrators, the nation was once again shocked by the news of two female real estate agents that was raped and the other murdered within 24 hours last week.

In a report by New Straits Times recently, it was stated that barely 24 hours after real estate agent Chen Choi Mooi was found murdered in Batu Dam, Gombak, another real estate agent was stripped naked and tied up by her “prospective clients”. She was however successfully rescued by police, who was alerted by auxiliary policemen, who had been tipped off that the victim was held captive at a condominium in Mont Kiara.

We are deeply saddened by the news and would like to express our sincere condolences to the family of Chen Choi Mooi and to the other victim, it is our hope and prayer that you will be able to overcome the trauma and recover from the ordeal.

As such, we would like to urge all agents, regardless whether you are a male or female, to take all the necessary precautions to ensure your safety. We have outlined some safety tips here – Being Safe Matters – Tips and steps to be safe on the job.

Please remember that the smallest bit of prevention goes a long way in ensuring your own personal safety. Be safe!

On a different note, I am extremely happy to highlight that our year-to-date results in all the four countries in which we operate in have reported astounding growth.  

iProperty.com.my continues to be the clear leader in Malaysia and was also recently ranked the world’s 3^rd most dominant portal when compared to other competitor portals by Property Portal Watch. The Malaysia business has and continues to achieve many milestones over the course of 2012.

In the first quarter of 2012, GoHome.com.hk has also successfully extended its lead in Hong Kong. The website continues to outperform other local real estate portals with the highest traffic, user and listing figures, making the most effective online advertising platform for local real estate and living sectors

Moving on the Indonesian market, we have also seen tremendous growth in both our portals, rumah123.com and rumahdanproperti.com, which we acquired in August last year. iProperty.com.sg continues to be the equal market leader and has established a clear position as a trusted source for information, property intelligence and buyer insights, in Singapore.

Another piece of exciting news that I wanted to share with you, was that we have expanded our family! The iProperty Group will soon be in Macau via the acquisition of vproperty.com, the country’s leading property portal. The acquisition extends the reach of the Group in the region with the Macau based portal being managed by the iProperty Group’s GoHome.com.hk business.

The portal currently generates revenue from local real estate agencies and property developers. It receives 50,000 consumer visits per month, generating 500,000 page impressions and has 60 registered agents as paying subscribers.

The success we achieved here, and continue to achieve, could not have been possible without your continuous support and believe in us as your trusted voice in all things property related. Thank you!

Have a great week!

What if I told you we were giving away a house for free? What if I told you that winning that house was as easy as 123? And no, we are not pulling your leg! On Labour Day, the team in Indonesia, Rumah123.com, launched the biggest online marketing campaign ever to be held online. A campaign that is set to give one lucky Indonesian an opportunity to win a house worth 500 million rupiah! Now, isn’t that something to shout about?

Well, we certainly got the town talking and visitors flocking through our site to participate in this extremely hard to resist contest. So, if you are an Indonesian citizen, don’t be left out! Submit an entry NOW here! You could just be the lucky winner to move in to a brand new home!

In Malaysia, thousands of people are making their way to the iProperty.com Expo 2012 at the Mid Valley Exhibition Centre. Held from the 4^th – 6^th of May, the Expo features Malaysia’s Hottest Properties under one roof and it’s the only place for property buyers and investors to find irresistible deals on the latest developments in town. So, if you are on the hunt for that next investment or in the search for your dream home, then head down over today. The EXPO is opened from 11am – 8pm.

We look forward to seeing you there! There will even be lucky draw prizes worth over RM700,000 waiting to be won!

On a different note, we’re proud to have launched our newly revamped ThinkProperty.my website! You can now post your property for sale/rent for FREE and participate in our very popular property forums where you can ask and discuss your thoughts and opinions.

We are also the talk of the town in Hong Kong with the formation of strategic cooperation’s with key leading developers. The formation of these strategic partnerships with leading developers solidifies GoHome.com’s position as the clear market leader in Hong Kong.

Moving on to Singapore, the 5th International Property Expo which was held in the Marina Bay Sands from the 20^th – 22^nd of April was hugely successful. Consumers walked away with great deals and developers were extremely happy with the turnout and success of the event.

On a separate note, I was extremely happy to hear that Nayati Moodliar, the little boy who was abducted on the way to school last week, has been safely reunited with his parents. I can only imagine the anguish and trauma that the little child was put through. I was happy to read that he is well and high in spirits. You are brave boy and your courage is certainly to be admired!

Have a great weekend!

I can’t believe that April is almost over and it will soon be May. April has truly been an exciting and busy month for the iProperty Group.

iProperty Group - How much we have grown!

Amidst juggling a busy schedule, I am extremely excited to report that the iProperty Group had a stellar first quarter. The Group’s year-on-year growth comparison between Q1 2011 and Q1 2012 saw a 69.4% increase in unique visitors, a 58.5% increase in pageviews and a 59.6% increase in leads across our portals.

These results are a testament to our relentless focus in delivering more exposure and leads to our agent and developer advertisers while continually growing traffic by ensuring our consumers get the best possible experience when searching for property.

Below is a short summary on how each of the countries we operate in performed:

Singapore

iProperty.com Singapore remains strong as equal market leader as it continues its push with the launch of its new consumer campaign, increasing engagement and arming property buyers with insights to help them make sound property purchase decisions.

iProperty.com Singapore experienced an increase in visitors to the website by 29% between February to March 2012. Advertisers also enjoyed a whopping 34% increase in total leads over the same period to an all-time high of 72,196.

Malaysia

iProperty.com Malaysia further strengthened its leadership position as Malaysia’s portal of choice as it continues to deliver strong year-on-year growth. More than 1 million unique visitors visit the site monthly and despite the country’s maturing market, the gap continues to widen between iProperty.com Malaysia and its closest competitor by over 190%.

The portal saw a surge in consumer traffic and leads between January and February 2012 with unique visitors increasing by 12% and leads sent to advertisers rising by 45% to 291,334.

I am also pleased to announce that the team has successfully performed a hat-trick by snapping up the award of property magazine of the year for the third consecutive year.

Awarded by Advertising + Marketing magazine and based on Boardroom Research’s annual magazine rankings, it was revealed that iProperty.com Malaysia emerged the preferred property magazine of choice, placing the likes of Property Buyer and Home Finder in second and third place respectively. Kudos to the team and a big THANK YOU to our readers for making us your preferred property magazine!

Hong Kong

GoHome.com.hk experienced record high traffic in Q1 of 2012 as visitors continue to choose the website as the no.1 portal for Hong Kong, extending the gap between Gohome.com.hk and its competitors. Gohome.com.hk is now the dominant property portal in Hong Kong.

February 2012 was an outstanding month for the business with advertisers enjoying an increase in leads by 47.7%, a massive undertaking during the festive month. Underpinning this surge in traffic is its recent launch of the new products and services aimed at the enormous property developer market.

Indonesia

Since we acquired Rumah123.com, we have seen tremendous growth in all key metrics with an average month-on-month unique visitor growth of 14% and a tremendous 44% month-on-month growth in leads. The business continues to grow from strength to strength because of its focus on delivering innovative product offerings and value to its customers to drive growth.

Rumah123.com has since gained recognition and approval of the real estate industry as the business has grown its customer base by 75% since September 2011.

Rumah123.com also further cemented its relationship with local property developers with its recent MOU undertaking as exclusive online partner with DDP REI (Real Estate Indonesia), an association with over 2,500 property developer members.

Aside from that, Rumah123.com recently launched the biggest ever social media contest to be organized by a property portal in Indonesia.  With attractive prizes worth over 500 million rupiah, we urge you to log on www.rumah123.com to obtain more information on the contest.

Who knows, you could just be that lucky winner!

CommercialAsia.com

The latest addition to the iProperty Group’s stable of property websites, commercialasia.com, which was launched in November 2011, continues to gain momentum month-on-month as interest in commercial property investment continues to grow and the brand gains traction in the market. This is evidenced by the website’s visitors from over 100 countries with 71% of these visits accounting as direct traffic.

In 5 short months, CommercialAsia has experienced a near 100% growth in unique visitors to 146,084 and pageviews by 55% to 271,412 since its launch.

Here’s looking forward to a fantastic Quarter 2!

Have a great weekend and Happy Labour Day!