SRX Property launches app that tracks homes' value, rent

Singapore

SINGAPORE Real Estate Exchange (SRX) Property has launched 'my Property Tracker', a free application targeted at the 1.4 million home owners and renters here.

Powered by StreetSine Technology Group - which is 60 per cent owned by Singapore Press Holdings - the application provides customised, free, monthly updates on changes in the value, rent and rental yield of the suscriber's home, as well as notifying the subscriber when transactions and listings occur in his or her neighbourhood.

Property Tracker, according to SRX, is intended not just for the approximately 50,000 users who are actively participating in the property market, but also for the home owners and renters who would like to monitor the value of their homes.

The service is the first in Singapore to provide a personalised web page for each subscriber, linked to their postal code and mobile number. It is based on the idea of the X-Value, which is a computer-generated appraisal of a property's market value.

The X-Value, unique to SRX, was developed using government and private funding. SRX collates data from over thirty sources to calculate X-Value, including CBRE, PropNex and government databases such as URA.

Said Andrew Chee, head of valuations at SRX Property: "The most common method in valuing a property is by comparing the sales transaction prices of other similar properties, which we call comparable market analysis in valuation terminology.

"The computer adjusts these comparables, using Hedonic regression, so that apples are compared to apples. It then calculates an estimated market sale or rental value of the subject property, meaning the X-Value."

Property Tracker differs from existing applications by catering for X-Value sale and rent of every home in Singapore, including HDB flats, private apartments, and for the first time, landed homes. An earlier SRX property tracking app, X-Value, limited the knowledge of computer-generated appraisals for landed homes to professionals and agents, and not the general public.

The app consists of three primary sections: home figures and facts, neighbourhood listings, and neighbourhood transactions.

Property Tracker also introduces new features including rental yield, undervalued properties in the vicinity, and the listings and final selling price of other properties.

A final feature offered is the mechanism for subscribers to invite friends to sign up for a home and web page via Facebook, Twitter, email, WhatsApp and SMS.

Users can subscribe to the app for free through the SRX website and access it through their mobiles phones, iPads and computers.

"Our goal is for every household in Singapore to receive monthly updates on the market value and rent of their homes," said Sam Baker, chief executive officer at SRX Property. "This will make Singapore the most transparent property market in the world," he emphasised.