PropertyAccess has positive oulook on PH real estate market

Prop-tech listing platform PropertyAccess said more than P3.6 billion worth of properties were sold through its platform in the past seven years.

PropertyAccess COO Andy Roberts said they have worked very hard on building its websites to have a dashboard of listings, including the Japanese and South Korean markets.

He said that to help investors find properties faster and make smarter and bigger investments, PropertyAccess registered about $90 million worth of properties in Southeast Asia and teamed up with more than 70 companies around the world.

Roberts said that in Japan, around 90 percent of clients are property investors who look into yield and return of investment, while in South Korea, clients are either retirees, second-home seekers or investors.

“This means Japanese clients are more conservative and can take four to six months to conclude a Philippine property transaction. Accessibility to transport is a large element for them,” he said.

“Meanwhile, South Korean clients are looking for golf, beach, sun, holidays, and relaxation.”

For both markets, Metro Manila and Cebu are the main areas of interest.

PropertyAccess has been listing Philippine properties for Japan since 2016 and only started doing so for South Korea in the last 18 months. It aims to keep a foothold as one of the top overseas real estate companies in both markets.

In the future, the company will be expanding to Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Australia, Mr. Roberts said.

Roberts underscored the role of technology in real estate, with prop-tech likely pushing property securitization and property virtualization through technologies like Al, machine learning, blockchain, and 3D visualization over the next decade.

“Smart contracts, for example, can facilitate between a buyer and seller without a middleman. It allows tokenization of a property, or dividing shares among many shareholders,” he said.

Roberts said the outlook for the Philippine real estate market is largely positive.

“This year there will be a number of property launches from a number of large developers, so we feel the next 2 years will be quite good for Philippine properties.”