An opportune time for a PropNex listing

PROBABLY in a few months' time, equity investors will have more options to ride the upswing in Singapore's residential market besides developer stocks and APAC Realty, which owns Singapore's second-largest property agency ERA Realty.

PropNex Realty, Singapore's largest homegrown property agency, is preparing for a public listing on Singapore's mainboard in the third quarter of this year. It is already talking to potential cornerstone investors, but has not obtained eligibility-to-list from the Singapore Exchange yet.

The last time PropNex Realty sought to undertake a public listing was believed to be around 2010-2011 after it switched its auditors to KPMG, a big four audit firm. But the plan was placed on the back-burner following a series of property cooling measures.