Korbitec managing director Riaan Basson, Property24.com.ph country manager Steve Santos, Korbicapital chief financial officer Louis Malherbe
MANILA, Philippines – It makes no sense to go on a wild goose chase when looking for that perfect home or office space. When schedules are tight and the idea of navigating through traffic-clogged thoroughfares becomes too daunting, trawling the Internet becomes so much more attractive. This allows prospective buyers to narrow down their choices before finally deciding to invest.
Even for brokers, the Internet is a boon because it allows them to show their property inventory to a wider audience of qualified prospective buyers. Because photos and other specifics regarding a property are shared through the Internet, only those who are truly interested will visit a property that is for sale. Ergo, less time is wasted in showing a place to people who won’t like it anyway.
Among the online property portals in the Philippines, there is Property24.com.ph. As the fastest growing real estate portal, it provides an effective online platform for leading real estate developers, agencies and brokers. The site has thousands of local real estate listings for prospective buyers to navigate with ease. By filtering the search depending on preferred location, price and property type, buyers can find properties and be in touch with licensed real agents.
Property24 has its roots in South Africa where it is currently one of the largest property search portals. With over 10 years in the online property search industry, it is a leader in “developing innovative technology that delivers a great online property searching experience for users.” As part of the Korbitec Group of Companies, it “strives to enable the property industry through technology” through “safe and secure products, solutions and electronic links which are developed for the benefit of all stakeholders involved in the transfer process.” Korbitec is the majority owner of Property24 Philippines which was launched early this year in partnership with OLX.ph, locally the number one buy-and-sell site.
Why open the first Asian Property24 office in the Philippines? Riaan Basson, managing director of the Korbitec Group of Companies who was in town recently, tells us that they decided to invest in the Philippines because of the country’s impressive growth in both the real estate and the Internet business. Is this the future of the real estate buy-and-sell business?
“We saw what these property portals can do for the world. Effectively, we saw how technology changes the way that people buy and sell property,” says Basson. “We believe in the future and have been working over the Internet for 20 years. By investing time, patience and a lot of money to develop a good idea, we are also able to see how this transforms the way real estate brokers make a living and how banks lend money so that people can buy their homes.”
