New Government Property Portal in Singapore Gets Unlikely Promoter

There can be few places in the world where inhabitants are as obsessed with property as they are in Singapore. The city-state is one of the most densely populated countries in the world with 8,358 people per square kilometre of territory and demand for housing, especially government-controlled 'HDB flats, is intense.

To deal with demand and streamline the process of buying and selling HDB flats, the Housing and Development Board of Singapore has launched a new property portal which aims to make everything "more convenient for home buyers and sellers to gather information on the purchase or sale of a flat through a single integrated platform" according to National Development Minister Desmond Lee.

The government's new property portal got a glowing plug from what might be considered an unlikely source today as fellow HDB flat marketer and leading Singaporean property portal PropertyGuru not only announced the launch of what is ostensibly a rival portal on its blog, but went into detail on the "one-stop portal" which reportedly includes a customised financial calculator and integrated loans service.

Perhaps, as a leader in the market which recently received $300 million in venture backing from its investors, PropertyGuru either doesn't see the new government portal as a direct competitor or maybe had a hand iin building or supporting the new HDB portal in going live.