Everyone dreams of owning a place they call their own.
Whether you’re born to wealth or a 9-to-5er with aspirations is to eventually buy a home from the fruits of your hard work, owning a home is a solid testament that you have done well in life. After all, nothing spells success like being a bonafide, title-bearing homeowner.
I should know. For the last five years, I have flirted with the idea of taking the plunge and finally investing in a place of our own. I loved the idea of coming home to a place where I don’t have to share the living room with other family members, where there is a small nook where I can blog, do calligraphy and maybe catch up on work and emails.
I wish buying a home is as easy as filing for financing or a housing loan and making a purchase. Any expert will tell you that part of the process is to research the homes that you want, based on your needs, lifestyle and budget.
Back in the day, people find their homes by reading the classified ads and encircling their options — imagine a series of three-line descriptions, with codes and abbreviations standing in as description of the property. Then, if you are interested you will call the numbers indicated in the papers and arrange for viewing of the home.
The advent of technology has given rise to many apps that made our lives easier. There’s practically a program for everything: GrabCar/Uber to get a ride, Zalora/Lazada to buy stuff off the web, SkyScanner to scour for cheap plane tickets and now, Lamudi/MyProperty PH to look for your future homes.
(From the press release)
Lamudi Philippines (www.lamudi.com.ph) is now officially the most visited real estate website in the Philippines. Citing its own data and that from web analytics platform SimilarWeb, Lamudi reported that visits to its platform for the first six months of 2015 is 34 percent higher than those recorded for the entire 2014. In addition, at 320,000 monthly visits, Lamudi’s site visits via desktop are now at least 28 percent higher than its nearest competitor.
2015 was also a year of milestones for Lamudi. In February, the company secured $18 million in funding to boost its operations in Asia and Latin America. In May, Lamudi acquired competitor MyProperty.ph to further cement its position as the Philippines’ number one property website.
Jacqueline Van Den Ende, Managing Director Lamudi PH
A first in Philippine real estate, Lamudi Philippines is also harnessing its massive online and listings data to generate reports and other content for Filipino homebuyers and property investors. For example, Lamudi analyzes data from its listings and regularly publishes content on condo, house, and commercial property price data.
The company’s onsite search data also provides a picture of online property-hunters’ behaviors and preferences. Lamudi found that most Filipino homebuyers still prefer houses over condos, despite Metro Manila’s condo boom, and that Quezon City is the most searched city in the Philippines for properties. Furthermore, Lamudi found that U.S.-based house-hunters are looking for houses more than half of the time (57.8 percent) and that after Quezon City, Makati, and Manila, Tagaytay and Baguio are the fourth and fifth most searched cities by Filipino-Americans.
According to Lamudi Philippines managing director Jacqueline van den Ende, these reports generated from the platform’s data provide sellers, brokers, and property developers much-needed insight to inform their marketing strategies.
“For a while, we’ve known that Filipinos are rapidly moving online to inform their purchase—from clothes, gadgets, and even real estate. But most sellers of real estate still have no idea as to how homebuyers behave online. Our data provides these sellers with data on buyers’ preferences, from location, price range, size, type, and even amenities.”
To tap into mobile-first consumers, the Lamudi Philippines app is now available for both iOS and Android devices, while the website itself has a mobile version. van den Ende said the importance of being available on mobile cannot be overemphasized. In the first half of 2015 alone, 32 and 15 percent of Lamudi’s traffic came from mobile and tablet users. Swedish ICT provider Ericsson also reported in June that mobile penetration in the Philippines will reach 40 percent by the end of this year, thanks to the popularity of more affordable smartphones.
To look for your new home or for more infomation on Lamudi, go to www.lamudi.ph.
LIFESTYLE WANDERLAND 