PropertyGuru narrows Q4 loss to $5.2 million

SINGAPORE - PropertyGuru slashed its loss for the fourth quarter of its 2022 financial year by 80.7 per cent to $5.2 million from $27.2 million in the year-ago period.

Revenue for the three months to December grew 16.8 per cent to $40.1 million from $34.3 million a year prior.

For financial year 2022, the property listings portal reported a 31.1 per cent drop in net loss from $187.4 million to $129.2 million, as revenue grew 35 per cent to $135.9 million.

Marketplaces continue to be the main revenue driver for PropertyGuru, with Singapore being the top revenue contributor. The Singapore marketplace grew 24 per cent to $69.2 million in financial year 2022. The growth was driven by an increase in average revenue per agent (Arpa) and an increase in overall agents.

Malaysia pipped Vietnam to become the second-highest revenue contributor, with revenue increasing 77.4 per cent to $25.4 million in the 2022 financial year. This increase was driven by the iProperty brand acquired in August 2021.

Revenue rose 28.1 per cent to $24 million in Vietnam. The market saw the government tightening credit, which resulted in fewer listings.

The adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) for financial year 2022 stood at $14.5 million.

“While rising interest rates and government credit intervention weighed on market activity, we remained resilient and delivered good growth by helping our customers navigate the challenges they faced and confirming the value-add of our solutions in all phases of the real estate cycle,” said Mr Hari V. Krishnan, chief executive officer and managing director of PropertyGuru.

The company forecasts revenues to be between $160 million and $170 million in financial year 2023, with adjusted Ebitda of between $11 million and $15 million. PropertyGuru will no longer remove the ongoing costs of listing when calculating adjusted Ebitda from the first quarter of financial year 2023. The costs for financial year 2023 are estimated to be between $11 million and $12 million.

There are a number of short-term global and local factors that could continue to impact operations and that resulted in a conservative outlook for financial year 2023.

Local factors include the actions by the Vietnam government to rein in consumer credit, political uncertainty in Malaysia and tightening property policies in Singapore. Among the global factors are the rising interest rate environment, inflationary pressures and supply chain issues.

PropertyGuru is projecting that Singapore’s property prices will hold up well, even after the various cooling measures. Supply is coming online, but prices should remain stable, which gives a sense of the demand in Singapore, said Mr Krishnan.

“Singapore still looks like a good space. We have a lot of agents in the marketplace; Arpa still looks very healthy,” he said.

The priority markets for PropertyGuru continue to be Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam.

“We remain bullish on our ability to deliver value to our customers as we digitise the property ecosystem and bring transparency and efficiency. We believe that our markets in South-east Asia will be at the forefront of future global growth,” said Mr Krishnan.

THE BUSINESS TIMES