Lamudi acquires PH real estate brand MyProperty.ph

Global property portal Lamudi announced Tuesday that it had acquired MyProperty.ph, a popular online and print real estate brand in the Philippines.

The deal size was not disclosed, but Lamudi executives in the Philippines tagged the transaction as the “biggest acquisition in online real estate”.

Lamudi is one of the 36 subsidiaries of German-based Internet company Rocket Internet

“It’s actually a financial acquisition with operational merger,” said Jacqueline van den Ende, managing director of Lamudi.com.ph, during an interview with DEALSTREETASIA on Tuesday.

Ende explained that although Lamudi and MyProperty would merge to become a single property portal in the Philippines, both companies would continue to operate individually to grow their existing brands. The companies still have different policies, like Lamudi doesn’t allow for pre-selling of properties and only works in compliance with brokers.

“We both want to cater to the general market of real estate, meaning residential, commercial, industrial, private islands and social housing,” Ende said. “The (acquisition) transaction was completed in April. The acquisition of MyProperty allowed Lamudi group to acquire, in one time, existing revenue-based, client and user-based, and all these elements will help accelerate Lamudi and MyProperty.”

Some of the expected benefits of the merger include increasing both the quality and quantity of property listings available online, as well as help professionalize the online real estate market by strengthening relationships with developers and brokers’ associations, the government sector, and other industry organizations.

Lamudi Philippines currently hosts over 80,000 residential and commercial property listings.

The Lamudi network in total, covers more than 30 countries across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America.

Only last February, Lamudi Global had bagged an investment of $18 million to expand operations in Asia and Latin America. The company claims market leadership in Myanmar and Bangladesh, while it considers the Philippines as a key market for the business with its rising Internet penetration and tech-savvy population.

Source – dealstreetasia