Iproperty sees growing interest in commercial property
Trends on Asia's largest dedicated commercial and industrial property portal, CommercialAsia.com, showed an 82% growth in unique visitors in the month of February. The site, which is owned and operated by the iProperty Group, also reported that a majority of visitors to the site were from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and Hong Kong Hong.
Shedding light on the matter, Glenn Thompson, General Manager of CommecialAsia.com, said that the possible heightened interest in commercial property could be attributed to the region-wide cooling measures for residential property by Asian governments and the fear of a possible recession in the United States and Europe.
"With the slowing economy and the volatility exhibited in the market, the interest shown from property investors from over 100 countries demonstrates a healthy demand from buyers across Asia-Pacific," added Thompson
He further elaborated that the shift in interest could also be attributed to the fact that commercial property yields higher rates of return in rental income than residential property and also requires minimal care and management.
He added that CommercialAsia.com was designed to provide property investors who are looking for a platform to search for properties outside of their country of residence with minimal hassle.
"CommercialAsia.com provides them with just that, hence making their search easy and fast. It provides them with a one-stop platform to find all the relevant information they need to make a well informed investment," said Thompson.
CommercialAsia.com not only provides property investors with up-to-date news on the industry but also the most comprehensive listings of office, industrial and retail properties across multiple sub-categories and countries.
In addition to that, Thompson added that CommercialAsia.com provides marketers of commercial properties an avenue to reach a wider and more targeted audience in the most cost effective and efficient manner.
CommercialAsia.com was launched in 2011 to provide Asia-Pacific commercial property investors and companies' CFOs with a simple way to browse commercial properties for sale or rent across the Asia-Pac region. For marketers of commercial properties, the portal capitalises on the Group's existing network of property portals across Asia which attracts 3.5 million unique visitors per month and has over 25,000 property agent customers.
The dedicated commercial property portal was launched in North Asia and South Asia with major support from key industry partners and the largest database of commercial and industrial property listings in the region with over 60,000 commercial listings. Next month, the site will also be available in both Chinese and Indonesian languages and the group has set aside a considerable marketing budget to continue the strong traffic growth, especially in China.
CommercialAsia.com has formed strategic alliances with leading industry players in the region including LJ Hooker, Ray International Real Estate Group, Centaline Commercial, PropNex, Orange Tee, PropertyBank.
Mr. Georg Chmiel, COO of LJ Hooker, said, "LJ Hooker is excited at partnering CommercialAsia.com, the biggest commercial & industrial portal in the region. This focused platform across Asia-Pacific will provide extended exposure and drive more leads and transactions for our customers."