Carousell Property has seen growing interest since its soft launch in 2019, with an almost five-fold increase in property listings, the startup says
Singapore-headquartered business-to-consumer (B2C) and consumer-to-consumer (C2C) marketplace startup Carousell has announced the official launch of Carousell Property in Hong Kong, following its earlier expansion into the auto business.
Collaborating with real estate agencies like Midland Realty, one of the largest real estate agencies in Hong Kong, Sakura Global, an overseas real estate firm, Going Moving, a dedicated house moving expert, and Metro Workspace, a co-working space, Carousell aims to address the need for more efficiency in the real estate industry.
According to the statement, Carousell Property has seen growing interest since its soft launch in 2019, with an almost five-fold increase in property listings. In addition, the classifieds marketplace has facilitated an average of 610,000 weekly activities about property products and services on the platform over the past year, the startup claims.
Carousell Property lists residential and industrials properties with separate categories for Sale, Rent, and Overseas. Additionally, the marketplace also offers a list of tools and services, including Home Services (home repairs, movers & delivery, renovation, electrical, lighting & wiring, air conditioning services, cleaning), Home & Furniture (furniture, gardening & plants), and Kitchen and Appliances.
According to the startup, Carousell will continue to diversify offerings in the Property marketplace with a focus on co-working spaces in the second half of this year.
Founded in 2012, Carousell now has a presence in 8 markets across Asia with over 250 million listings, and claims to be one of the world’s largest and fastest growing marketplaces in Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The startup is backed by Telenor Group, OLX Group, Rakuten Ventures, Sequoia India, and Naspers.
“Owning or renting a property is a basic need to set up a home. For a city like Hong Kong that pursues speed and efficiency, shopping on a one-stop marketplace like Carousell Property will help consumers save time,” said Cahill Kei, Head of Business Development of Carousell Hong Kong.
Director of Midland Realty, Kelvin Cheong said, “Midland has always strived to build an “Omni-channel” for property purchases. The collaboration between Carousell and Midland not only allows us to further enhance our online network, but also allows us to recommend quality properties to a broader spectrum of customers.”
“Carousell’s enormous customer pool will increase the number of customer touchpoints and bring us more business opportunities,” he added.
“The new marketplace is easy to use and creates an efficient consumer journey for people of diverse ages and backgrounds, enhancing our interaction with more potential buyers,” said Anvy Cheung, Sakura Global’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer.
The announcement comes at a time when property markets in Hong Kong are far from idyllic. Although the Hong Kong real estate market has remained relatively resilient despite the violent protests, U.S.-China trade war, the coronavirus outbreak, and the recession, the longest bull run in the history of Hong Kong’s commercial real estate market came to an end last year, with values and rents dipping for the first time in over a decade.
According to JLL forecasts, the Hong Kong real estate market is headed for a downturn, and values, and rents for offices, high street shops and residential properties are expected to fall 10-20%.
Rents across all major office submarkets dropped in April with the overall market rents declining by 3.0% m-o-m as weak demand persisted, although residential sales picked up mildly, according to JLL’s Property Market Monitor report of May 2020.
Header Image Courtesy of Carousell
