eBay Moves In On Property

Singapore’s largest real estate portal, propertyguru.com.sg, has announced a partnership with eBay, which sees the launch of a new feature-rich property search service on eBay’s Singapore website, ebay.com.sg.

The new eBay Singapore real estate service offers consumers the ability to find and review available HDB, condo, landed and commercial property for rent and sale in Singapore and overseas – with photos, videos and maps. It also gives users access to free expert mortgage advice from accredited independent mortgage consultants, as well as enabling them to find real estate agents by property speciality and read property and investment research, guides, articles and news.

In a press release from propertyguru.com.sg about the partnership, Allis Ghim, Director at eBay said:

“This is great news for the Singapore real estate community. Our partnership with PropertyGuru enables us to offer our users the best experience by partnering with the experts in online real estate, and offer a new content-rich real estate service. This represents a great stride in eBay’s strategy to provide the best experience to our users”.

eBay Singapore teaming up with propertyguru.com.sg is not the only news from eBay about property listings of late.

With nearly 20 million unique visitors each month, ebay.co.uk is the fourth largest website in the UK. globaledge.co.uk brought our attention to the fact that ebay.co.uk now lists residential properties.

Currently, more than 180,000 listings from the UK and overseas are included in ebay.co.uk’s residential property category. Properties can be listed in the auction and “buy it now” categories, or as a “classified ad only”, which cannot be bid on.

Worldwide, eBay has over 86 million users. So, what is the online auctions giant doing globally with property listings, and how does propertyguru.com.sg’s partnership with eBay as well as the new listings on ebay.co.uk compare to those on the equally popular eBay domains in other countries?

The Australian domain ebay.com.au and its US counterpart ebay.com also list properties in their real estate sections. Sellers can list properties for auction, as “buy it now” items or as classified ads.

At the moment, ebay.com.au has far fewer private real estate listings than ebay.co.uk, with only 113 items in its real estate category. ebay.com has attracted a few more sellers, with 2993 items in its real estate section.

Along with private property listings, ebay.com.au also has a content distribution partnership with domain.com.au, Australia’s number two property portal. These listings are included in the ebay.domain.com.au site, which is linked to from the ebay.com.au front page.

ebay.co.uk charges GBP£35 per real estate listing, as compared to a fee of AUD$49.95 on ebay.com.au. ebay.com offers various types of listings for prices ranging from USD$35 to USD$300.

Ireland’s eBay domain, ebay.ie, recently created a partnership with Ireland’s top property portal, daft.ie. ebay.daft.ie is linked to from the ebay.ie front page.

French eBay domain ebay.fr has 12 million registered users and also links to a dedicated “no bids” classifieds listing real estate search page (with 14 day free trials for advertisers). eBay immo, as it’s called, launched last October and is modelled on the successful Italian eBay real estate website: eBay case. And over 132,000 properties listings are also available via a categories search on the German ebay.de.

This is just a small sample of what is happening in the 39 markets eBay operates in, and partnering with portals is just one way eBay is moving in on property listings.

1. daft.ie and ebay.ie Advertising Partners

   Ireland's leading property portal, daft.ie, has agreed on a new online advertising partnership with ebay.ie. ...

2. domain.com.au Does Distribution Deal with ebay.com.au

   Australia's number 2 site, domain.com.au has just completed a content distribution deal with ebay.com.au that sees the launch of a new real estate section on ebay - ebay.domain.com.au. The new site will be linked from the home page of ebay and expose the new site to ebay's 5.4 million unique visitors per month. ...

3. propertyguru.com.sg Best Property Portal

   After winning CNBC’s “Best Asia Pacific Portal” award in July, Singaporean portal propertyguru.com.sg has taken out the “Best International Property Portal” title, beating entrants from 105 countries. The 2009 CNBC International Residential Property Awards were judged by a panel of 52 industry experts and chaired by Helen Shield, co-founder and editor in chief of International Homes Magazine. Entrants are initially judged at country or regional level. Up to two of the most outstanding entries across 36 categories category can be given a four-star award, while the best overall entry is given a five-star award. Every five-star winner’s entry is then re-examined to determine which companies go forward to be re-judged for the ultimate World’s Best Award....

4. Magazine, Street View at propertyguru.com.sg

   Following on from its win at the 2009 CNBC International Residential Property Awards, Singaporean portal propertyguru.com.sg has teamed up with Malaysia’s Property Buyer magazine to launch a Singapore edition of the publication. The new Singapore edition of Property Buyer will provide news on the property markets in Malaysia and Singapore. It will also showcase propertyguru.com.sg’s listings and give the portal’s advertisers another way to reach buyers. Meanwhile, Google Street View has just gone live in Singapore, and while not everyone is comfortable with the technology, propertyguru.com.sg director Steve Melhuish is keen to integrate the service into his portal. ...

5. propertyguru.com.sg Wins CNBC Award

   Singaporean property portal propertyguru.com.sg has won the "Best Asia Pacific Property Portal” award, beating entrants from 25 countries in the CNBC International Property Awards 2009. ...