The Onerent team. Left to right: Chuck Hattemer (Co-Founder and CMO), Rico Mok (Co-Founder and CTO), Greg Toschi (Co-Founder and CEO), and Julian Kuan (Chief Operations Officer)
Despite COVID-19 looming over the world, disrupting businesses and delaying launches, San Francisco-based startup Onerent is set to launch its property management platform in Singapore.
However, this is not the first time the company made an entry to Asia, the startup already has a fully remote team working from the Philippines.
When asked about further expansion plans in Southeast Asia, Onerent Co-Founder and CMO Chuck Hattemer expressed ambitious goals. He said that they are planning to work in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.
Part of its Asia expansion strategy includes a partnership with investor Far East, who participated in the Series A funding round for OneRent.
“We wanted to work with people on the ground locally, and that’s why we partnered with Far East Organisation. Right off the bat, they have such a great legacy within the Singaporean market and a history of real estate development, sales and leasing. So, the first thing we did was immerse our team with Far East’s team to understand the way property was in Singapore,” co-founder of OneRent, Chuck Hattemer told e27 in an interview.
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Founded in 2014, Onerent is a proptech company which aims to digitise the rental process holistically. Its ACE technology will allow renters to take a virtual tour of the home, over messenger, WhatsApp and apple business chat.
This technology can especially be seen as more attractive during COVID-19 since it promotes a contactless way of buying and selling property.
However, there are still local companies such as PropertyGuru and 99.co which offer similar services and have been in the market for a longer time. PropertyGuru has also recently launched a similar technology which allows a fully virtual guided tour with a salesperson.
What makes Onerent different, according to Hattemer, is that it has also been backed by Google’s chief of AI Jeff Dean. Its other unique aspect is that it offers users the option to get real estate tasks done over just “a chat experience”. Through the chat, users can ask questions about their property, negotiate, and even manage contracts.
” With COVID-19 shifting consumer behaviour, we have had a lot of interest from real estate operators and developers who have been doing things in a paper-pendant-stamp way and want to adopt technology,” Hattemer said.
One Rent online platform
Real-estate during COVID-19
While it is true that COVID-19 is shifting consumer towards a more virtual form of reality, it is also creating a lot of economic uncertainty. When it comes to real-estate, there have been mixed reports.
According to a Bloomberg report, Singapore’s home prices fell the most in three years in the second quarter of 2020, while analysts have also made predictions that the slide may not be over.
On the other hand, while housing properties are falling the resale volume of the island city’s non-landed private homes have hit a two-year high in August, according to the Business Times.
“If we look at the past long-term property trends in Asia, it has always come back after demand shocks. This might be a testament to the fact that Asia is still urbanising and the long-term demand for property and the related proptech sector is still trending upwards,” said Kay Mok Ku, Managing Partner of Gobi Partners, a leading ASEAN-focused VC firm.
Also Read: How proptech startup iMyanmarHouse remains profitable despite COVID-19
But some skeptics argue that it is too early to get a clear view of how this pandemic will unfold in the proptech sector.
In times like this, one of Onerent’s key strategies for growth is giving people virtual tour access and rebates.
“For our primary business, we allow people to do a full virtual tour. They can even book a self-tour through a lockbox on the property and visit the property without anyone being there,” shared Hattemer.
“In the US, when they sign a lease and move in, they have, 90 days to be able to decide if they want to move somewhere else instead. So even though they signed a one year lease, we give them some leeway, if maybe it wasn’t right, wasn’t the right fit. For some of those features, in Singapore, it will be decided with Far East and how they market their properties.”
Onerent is also planning to offer rent rebates, to help with the pressures of paying rent for someone who is leasing a home with the company.
After its success in the US market, with the help of local partnership OneRent has strong ambitions for its Southeast Asian debut.
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Image Credit: One Rent
The post San Francisco’s Onerent to launch in Singapore despite uncertainty in the real estate industry appeared first on e27.