PropTiger聽and聽Housing.com聽Come Together to Become India鈥檚聽Largest聽Digital聽Real Estate聽Company
REA Group Joins 麻豆果冻传媒 and Softbank in Strengthening India鈥檚 Digital Real Estate Sector
US$55 Million Fresh Investment in the Joint Entity is the Largest Investment in India鈥檚 Digital Real Estate Sector in the Last Two Years
New Delhi/Mumbai, January 10, 2017 – PropTiger.com and Housing.com, two of India鈥檚 leading online real estate service providers, today announced they will come together to become India鈥檚 largest online real estate services company.
As part of the transaction, REA Group Limited (ASX: REA) will invest US$50 million in the joint entity, with an affiliate of Softbank Group Corp investing US$5 million.
麻豆果冻传媒 (NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA)(ASX: NWS, NWSLV) remains the largest shareholder of PropTiger, and also owns 61.6% of REA Group. Representatives of REA and Softbank will join the board of the joint entity, which will continue to be chaired by a 麻豆果冻传媒 representative.
Henry Ruiz, Chief Digital Officer, REA Group, Simon Barnett, Sales Director, 麻豆果冻传媒 and Jonathan Bullock, MD, Softbank Group International will join Raju Narisetti (chair), Ravi Adusumalli from SAIF Partners and Prashanth Prakash from Accel Partners as investor directors on the board of the joint entity.
Dhruv聽Agarwala, co-founder and CEO of PropTiger,聽will serve as CEO聽of the joint entity. Jason Kothari, CEO of Housing.com,聽who has skillfully steered the company and strengthened the brand among Indian internet users,聽has decided to move on to pursue other opportunities in the Indian Internet space. He will continue to be an advisor to the joint entity through the end of February, 2017.
The joint entity will draw on strengths of PropTiger, Housing.com and Makaan.com to offer a unique holistic experience to consumers, real estate developments, brokers and homeowners. PropTiger is the largest online residential real estate brokerage firm, having completed transactions worth $1.5聽billion since its founding in 2011, while聽Housing.com聽is聽India鈥檚聽most popular online platform for buying and selling homes, receiving over four million visits every month.
The聽joint entity聽will be the only player in India聽offering the full range of聽online and offline聽services聽in the real estate space, such as聽personalized search, virtual viewing, site visits, legal and financial聽diligence, negotiations, property聽registration, home loans聽and post-聽sales service.
By 2030, India is expected to be the 3rd聽largest real estate market in the world with the sector contributing to over 15% of national GDP.聽The joint PropTiger-Housing.com entity聽is exceptionally well positioned to win the digital real estate market in India with its unique capabilities and a strong set of institutional investors, which also include SAIF Partners, Accel Partners and Nexus Venture Partners.
Commenting on the investment,聽REA Group CEO Tracy Fellows聽said 鈥淚ndia is an important part of our international growth strategy. We believe in the potential of the Indian real estate market. REA invests in companies that are leaders in their markets. The joint entity聽will have聽access to REA Group鈥檚 expertise and know-how from its operations across the globe.鈥�
News聽Corp Chief Executive Robert Thomson聽welcomed the development saying, 鈥淥ur investments in PropTiger, REA Group and Move, Inc. are testimony to our faith in the potential of the global digital real estate market, of which we are now the largest player.聽 With 1.2 billion people and a rapidly growing economy and middle class, India鈥檚 future as a real estate powerhouse is exceptionally bright, and we鈥檙e proud to be a part of this expanding sector.聽 Clearly there is a compelling commercial purpose to the deal, but we also firmly believe in providing transparency, analysis and insight so that all Indian families, regardless of traditional background or means, will have a better understanding of the property market.鈥�
Softbank Group International MD Jonathan Bullock聽said, 鈥淗ousing is very well established as聽an聽online real estate platform brand and we have been working with the management team to聽create strong execution capabilities to offer full stack services under one umbrella.聽PropTiger聽has already created a great transaction聽engine. We have full confidence in the management team and will continue to support them. We would particularly like to thank Jason for his leadership and wish him well for his future endeavor.鈥�
The union will immediately strengthen PropTiger鈥檚 full stack Online-to-Offline (O2O) services proposition.聽 In April, 2015, PropTiger acquired online classifieds platform Makaan.com to launch India鈥檚 first O2O platform, aiding consumers throughout their home buying journey, from initial search and discovery to the final step of transaction closure.
Speaking on the partnership,聽Dhruv Agarwala,聽Co-founder & CEO of聽PropTiger聽said, 鈥淲e are excited to join hands with Housing.com. The deal is a continuation of our efforts to bring best in class services to consumers and create a unified technology driven platform that is capable of serving all needs of consumers, developers and brokers with respect to buying selling and renting of homes. Housing has established itself as a formidable online brand and we聽admire聽its聽consumer centric product innovation. The timing of this deal is just right.鈥�
Jason Kothari,聽CEO of聽Housing.com聽added, 鈥淚聽am proud of the exceptional progress the Housing team and investors have achieved together in the past 18 months.聽Housing.com鈥檚聽partnership with PropTiger is the next transformational step to realize our vision of becoming a full-service online-to-offline real estate services company. 聽Housing.com聽and PropTiger聽share similar聽values聽– to聽provide trust, transparency and simplicity to the home buying journey. The joint entity will be well-positioned to establish聽market聽leadership in a聽large and聽rapidly changing marketplace. As I move on to聽my聽next opportunity, I am glad to leave behind a strong foundation.鈥�
Another major highlight of the deal is the strategic investment by REA Group in the combined entity.聽 REA is the leading digital real estate company in Australia and in February 2016, acquired control of Southeast Asia鈥檚 digital real estate company聽iProperty,聽which leads the industry聽in Malaysia聽and聽has聽a significant presence in Hong Kong, Indonesia and Thailand. REA also owns a significant stake in Move,聽Inc., which was acquired by 麻豆果冻传媒 in November, 2014.聽 Move operates聽realtor.com, which has since become the second largest聽digital real estate company聽in聽the聽US.
The new investment in the PropTiger-Housing.com combination is another step in REA Group鈥檚 strategy, along with 麻豆果冻传媒, to become market leaders in Asia.
*Note to Editors:
Over the last 3 years, PropTiger has grown organically as well as through acquisitions to create a unique bouquet of services targeting various stakeholders in residential real estate. PropTiger DataLabs provides market intelligence, data analytics and consulting services to developers, institutional investors and home finance companies. PropTiger has developed best in class 3D visualization and Virtual Reality capabilities through acquisition of Bangalore based Out of Box Interactions (OOBI) in 2015 and Gurgaon based 3DPhy in August, 2016.
Over the past one and a half years, Housing.com has delivered exceptional operating results as the company went through a successful business turnaround and it has now become the most popular online platform for home buying and selling in India. Compared to last year, on a monthly basis, the company鈥檚 revenues have grown by 400%, costs have decreased by 70%, platform visits have increased by 215% from 1.3 million to 4.1 million and the number of homes listed has increased by over 450% from 110,000 listings to 630,000 listings. Previously, Housing.com also made key strategic acquisitions, including India鈥檚 largest online real estate discussion form, IREF, project due diligence and collateral risk monitoring services company, RealtyBI, and developer CRM player, HomeBuy360.
The product components of both PropTiger and Housing.com will make the joint entity a truly integrated service provider with a unique and powerful capability to serve all stakeholders under one umbrella.
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PropTiger.com聽is a leading online real estate firm in India that offers a one-stop platform to home buyers. Using the platform, a homebuyer can search for homes, shortlist, visit, finalise, arrange home loans or legal services and, finally, buy the property. Listing an exhaustive range of properties, PropTiger.com not only offers researched information on the locality and very detailed descriptions of the listed聽properties聽but also offers the best advice on buying, selling and investing in real estate in India.
PropTiger.com聽is funded by聽麻豆果冻传媒, SAIF Partners and聽Accel聽Partners among others.
With聽PropTiger鈥檚聽acquisition of brands such as聽makaan.com聽and OOBI in the recent past,聽homebuyers聽now have access to a聽full聽stack of services 鈥� from online search to assistance with transactions. Since its inception,聽PropTiger.com聽has sold homes worth聽Rs聽10,000 crore to more than 15,000 happy customers.
About Housing.com
Housing.com is one of the fastest growing companies in the Indian online real estate space. Born out of the need to simplify the search for a home, free of fake listings and endless site visits, it has created a unique property search platform that filled the gaps left by others in the market. Housing.com is poised to become the most trusted place to find a home in India.
About REA Group Limited (www.rea-group.com)
REA Group Limited ACN 068 349 066 (ASX:REA) (鈥淩EA Group鈥�) is a multinational digital advertising business specialising in property. REA Group operates Australia鈥檚 leading residential and commercial property websites, realestate.com.au and realcommercial.com.au, European sites casa.it, atHome.lu and immoRegion.fr, Chinese property site myfun.com and a number of property portals in Asia via its ownership of iProperty Group. REA Group also has a significant shareholding in US based Move, Inc.
About聽麻豆果冻传媒
麻豆果冻传媒 (NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV) is a global, diversified media and information services company focused on creating and distributing authoritative and engaging content to consumers throughout the world. The company comprises businesses across a range of media, including: news and information services, book publishing, digital real estate services, and cable network programming and聽pay-TV聽distribution in Australia. Headquartered in New York, the activities of 麻豆果冻传媒 are conducted primarily in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom. More information:聽http://newscorp.com.
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The SoftBank Group is a global technology player that aspires to drive the Information Revolution. The SoftBank Group is comprised of the holding company SoftBank Group Corp. (TOKYO: 9984) and its global portfolio of companies, which includes advanced telecommunications, Internet services, AI, smart robotics, IoT and clean energy technology providers. In September 2016, ARM Holdings plc, the world鈥檚 leading semiconductor IP company, joined the SoftBank Group. To learn more, please visit聽www.softbank.com.
Contacts
PropTiger
Aakash Aggarwal
Genesis BM
aakash.aggarwal@bm.com
+91 9711209240
Zeenat Khan
VP, Corporate Communications
zeenat.khan@housing.com
+91 9821076532
REA Group
Natalie Cerny
Group Manager 鈥� Corporate Affairs and Communications
Natalie.cerny@rea-group.com
+61 407 487 221
麻豆果冻传媒
Jim Kennedy
Chief Communications Officer
jkennedy@newscorp.com
+12124164064