Singaporean online property portal Ohmyhome expands into Philippines, eyeing share of steady workers’ remittances
- The home sales site will have to compete with other online portals such as Carousell, Lamudi, and Hoppler that are already operating in the Philippines
- Remittances from a vast army of overseas workers, relatively unaffected by Covid-19, are driving sales of affordable to mid-priced flats in Manila, says Colliers
Singaporean online property portal Ohmyhome has expanded its operations to the Philippines, hoping to grab a slice of the growing property market in the capital Manila.
The lack of a comprehensive electronic database of property transactions and a stable internet connection, however, are just two constraints that need to be addressed for such platforms to flourish there.
“Expanding in the Philippines was the logical next step due to its growing market,” said Rhonda Wong, CEO and co-founder of Ohmyhome. “In the last three years, Manila has seen an increase of [apartment] prices of 12.4 per cent each year on average.”
The Philippines is the company’s third market after Singapore and Malaysia, which it entered last year. The four-year-old firm will have to compete with other online portals such as Carousell, Lamudi, and Hoppler that are already operating in the Philippines. Ohmyhome says it has facilitated more than 5,300 property transactions worth over S$1.6 billion (US$1.2 billion), serving more than 8,000 customers.
Ohmyhome seeks to be a “global player in taking care of everyone’s housing journey, starting with the buy, sell and renting of homes to post-purchase services, including the renovation and maintenance of their homes,” said Wong.
“Our model is unique, we’re a hybrid platform of do-it-yourself platform and full-fledged agency services.”
The huge number of overseas Filipinos, she added, presents an opportunity to Ohmyhome. Remittances from this segment of roughly 10 million people came to US$21.9 billion between January and September, down by a mere 1.4 per cent from the same period a year ago, according to government data. The very modest decline suggests resilience even as thousands of Filipino workers have come home because of the global recession brought on by the coronavirus.