Singapore
REAL estate portals in Singapore are being squeezed by hefty costs on the one hand and the lack of scale on the other, but the solution they seek - looking to the region for scale - may add further short-term pain.
PropertyGuru's short-lived journey towards an initial public offering in Australia last month had laid bare the financials of the market leader in the portal space in South-east Asia. And it showed the online property classified marketplace incurring a net loss of S$3.8 million on a revenue of S$71.5 million in 2018, on a pro forma basis.
Financial statements obtained by The Business Times (BT) of other portal companies here also showed a similar trend.
The second largest player,...