Portals hiking their costs to agents are a big story within the industry.

But in Singapore, one portal’s decision to increase subscriptions across the board as from last Friday has featured on prime-time national TV news.

That is because of a backlash by agents, which has seen over 3,000 joining a chat group to discuss the issue.

Some of the agents on ‘No to Propertyguru’ are calling for a switch to other portals once their subscription ends.

An associated Facebook page, which repeatedly likens PropertyGuru to “bloodsuckers”, is followed by over 1,200 people.

The portal is accused of ‘profiteering” – and one comment posts a link to a recent EYE story about agents in America boycotting a rental portal after it altered its pricing model, with the result that listings plunged 50% in one day.

https://www.facebook.com/Say-NO-to-Propertyguru-687659624760617/

PropertyGuru is Singapore’s biggest portal and says it is making changes to improve the property seeker’s experience which will “ultimately deliver more leads to the agents”.

With criticisms that the price hikes will hit newer entrants into the market hardest, Property Guru will offer a 40% discount for first-time subscribers from September 1.

PropertyGuru has some 15,000 agents using its platform out of a total of 28,397 in Singapore.

The portal claims to have increased the number of enquiries agents receive by 70% per month since 2015.

Clearly, both the property market and the way portals operate in Singapore are very different from the UK.

But nothing like this could ever happen here.

Could it?

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/some-real-estate-agents-unhappy-about-propertyguru-s-impending-9088772