62 | INTERVIEW WORDS | John Howell Batting for the East
South East Asia is an exciting area to work in, whichever way you look at it. In countries where coups are “just part of life” and the property markets are constantly changing, the job of a journalist is never going to be boring. OPP speaks to Andrew Batt of PropertyGuru about the past, present and future of the region
his month I have been talking to Andrew Batt, regional group editor of the PropertyGuru Group. Property Guru run a series of impressive property websites relating to Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand but they also keep a close eye on other developing areas in the region such as Vietnam and Cambodia. Andrew joined the company as recently as September 2011 but he had known its CEO and co-founder, Steve Melhuish, for many years and so he knew what he was letting himself in for. Andrew’s challenge was simple: to capture 10% of Southeast Asia’s real estate advertising market and 25 million regional users in the next three years. No problem there, then. His boss is incredibly bullish about
T
the market in Southeast Asia. “We see strong economic growth, rising middle classes, urbanisation, developing property markets as well as an online explosion, taking place throughout
Asia. PropertyGuru sits in the middle of all of this. Our revenues and traffi c doubled over the previous year and we increased our leadership position in our markets.”
The company is certainly buzzing. In
2011, in addition to winning two OPP Awards – the Silver Award for Best Online Service and the Gold Award for Best Media Brand – PropertyGuru
“Foreigners are again comfortable with Thailand, but the fi nancial crisis has had its impact”
has been recognised by receiving a gold medal in the SEA SME Tiger Awards for online business, Marketing Magazine’s Digital Media of the Year award and the Singapore IT Federation’s Best Mobile Application award. It has also been voted as one of
the top 100 most innovative companies in Asia.
Before joining PropertyGuru,
Andrew had been publishing director for Ensign Media, who produce the Property Report South East Asia, so he knew the region and had lots of relevant experience. Andrew was born in the UK but
went to live in Thailand in 2006. As in so many cases of foreigners going to live in Thailand, it was all about romance. Having been drawn to the country by a beautiful woman, he couldn’t face doing what most foreigners do – namely teaching English. Instead he continued his previous career as a journalist. He is now based in Singapore, where he spends two-thirds of his time. The rest is split between PropertyGuru’s other offi ces in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. He has a team of 10 editors and journalists focussing only on property news.
Andrew Batt is regional group editor of the PropertyGuru websites. In Singapore:
PropertyGuru.com.sg and
CommercialGuru.com.sg In Malaysia:
PropertyGuru.com.my In Thailand:
DDproperty.com In Indonesia:
Rumah.com
Email:
andrew@allproperty.com.sg Tel: +65 9896 6331
Business booming | despite the odd problems – legal, political and natural – in Thailand, the market continues to expand
“This makes PropertyGuru a real force to be recognised in this region and opens up lots of opportunities that would be denied to a smaller organisation.” At fi rst glance, his timing was not great. He arrived in Thailand just before the coup of 2006. Faced with pictures of burning buildings and tanks on the street, most foreigners stopped looking at buying a property there. According to Andrew: “They had, typically, misread and misunderstood the position. In Thailand, coups are a regular occurrence. They’re just part of life. They’re just a hiccup.” Not that the coup was his only problem. Since then there have been fl oods and other states of emergency. Despite all of this, Andrew says: “Foreigners are again comfortable with Thailand but the fi nancial crisis has had its impact. Fortunately, the downturn in the international market has been covered by increased regional business – including some from China. While China is number two in terms of foreign buyers in Singapore, they haven’t really discovered Thailand yet.” Looking further afi eld, his biggest surprise has been the increase in British people buying holiday homes in Indonesia. “This came from nowhere.” What does Andrew consider to be his main competition? “There is not really one single competitor. PropertyGuru has a very strong brand. There are companies that compete with us in our individual markets, but none really have the breadth and depth that we offer.” Where is the activity in these markets coming from, and why are people buying there? “Most of the activity is local and regional. The whole of this
THE LAST WORD
www.opp.org.uk | JULY & AUGUST 2012
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