What potential benefits can technology bring to the way we transact homes?

Buying your first home in Singapore is one of the biggest financial decisions you will ever make. Yet most buyers go in underprepared, relying on agents and listing platforms while the data that could actually anchor their decisions sits buried in government databases. One Singaporean engineer working for a Magnificent Seven company in Silicon Valley decided to do something about that, in his spare time, at his own cost, for free.

In this episode of PropertyBT, a podcast of BT Correspondents, host Leslie Yee speaks with Tan Zhi Long, co-founder of realsmart.sg, about what is broken in Singapore’s property market, what technology can realistically fix and what it cannot. It is a candid conversation from someone with no financial incentive to tell you anything other than what he actually thinks.

Why listen

• Why Singapore property buyers are the least prepared party in any transaction Tan learned this the hard way in a closed bidding process for his first resale HDB. He explains exactly what data most buyers never think to check.

• Whether technology will make property agents redundant or more powerful With 36,816 licensed agents in Singapore and AI automating more of their workflow, the answer is more nuanced than either side of the debate suggests.

• How Singapore’s property market compares to the San Francisco Bay Area Tan has bought in both markets. The similarities in buyer psychology and sales tactics may surprise you, and so will the differences in data transparency.

• Do young Singaporeans have genuine grounds to complain about affordability Tan looks at this through data rather than sentiment and gives an honest answer.

This episode contends that the property market will not become perfectly fair anytime soon but it can become more transparent. This episode makes a convincing case for why that matters. Listen now.

BT Correspondents is a podcast series featuring some of The Business Times newsroom’s most respected journalists. Discover more episodes at bt.sg/podcasts. Got feedback? Email us at btpodcasts@sph.com.sg.

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Written and hosted by: Leslie Yee (lyee@sph.com.sg)

With Tan Zhi Long, co-founder, realsmart.sg

Edited by: Howie Lim & Claressa Monteiro

SEE ALSO

High per square foot prices of new condos could be increasingly irrelevant to buyers

Is buying Reits and shares in property developers better than investing directly in physical property?

Produced by: Leslie Yee, Howie Lim & Chai Pei Chieh

A podcast by BT Podcasts, The Business Times, SPH Media

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