DirectHome knocks on Malaysia’s door
> Singapore online property portal plans to expand services within next six months
KUALA LUMPUR: Singapore-based DirectHome, an online property portal that connects home owners with the potential buyers and tenants, is planning to expand its services into the Malaysian market within the next six months.
DirectHome provides comprehensive solution, where its users are able to sell, buy and rent properties with automated step-by-step process flow, bypassing the need of real estate agents, thus helping to reduce the cost of such transactions.
The platform is also known as the world’s first platform to offer cashback and reward contributors via “tokenomics” (token-economic incentive structure).
“We are already a proven platform in Singapore and the next natural market is in Malaysia,” DirectHome CEO/ founder Kiegan Chia ( pix) told SunBiz recently.
“The population (in Malaysia) is already six times of that in Singapore. So with the adoption and adaption in these two countries, we will be able to replicate it (the model) around the world,” Chia added, noting the platform has currently thousands of property listings.
To date, he said the platform had transacted over S$350 million (RM1.05 billion) in properties value, involving Singapore government-built Housing and Development Board apartments as well as private properties.
Chia disclosed that he is in talks with some potential local partners, and at the same time exploring for more partners to grow its business here.
On its business model, he said the home owners are able to opt for its free listing service, where they can list their properties for free in the platform and transact successfully with the buyers and tenants.
Under its free-listing service, the buyer and tenant can contact the landlords directly via its app and use the platform resources, which include guidelines and tools, to complete the transaction process and paperwork.
For its express listing service, Chia said the owners will be charged a fixed price of S$1,480 to sell a property and S$280 to rent out a property.
He pointed out that the platform differs from the existing property portals that mostly rely on property listings by developers and agents for the bulk of their revenue.
He said this is because it includes a crowdsource contributory platform whereby the contributors or the community will get rewarded via tokenomics when they uploaded additional information of the real estate to the platform. “Eventually, our biggest partner around the world will be our consumers because of this tokenomics (incentive structure),” he added.