TODAY

Mr Balaji Ramaswami, MD since July 2015 of Germany-based Rocket Internet’s branch business property website House.com.mm was asked of his experiences and views on Myanmar’s real estate industry at a transient meeting with him.

Where does most traffic at House.com.mm come from?
Mostly from inside Myanmar at 65 percent. Next is from Singapore at 6.5 percent. Search also comes from US, Thailand, etc. Many Myanmars living abroad are included in those figures. Our website is the only bilingual property website so searches in English form a customer group of ours. (As of September 2015)

Challenges for House.com.mm
A major challenge is data quality. Information we offer is being improved upon always so that visiting the site could be beneficial. Relevant data and a clear-cut quality control team are in place. Photos accompanied by enough infor-mation make for interest on the part of user besides bringing more benefit to agent.

How does House.com.mm stand in negotiate process between seller and buyer?
We are completely out of negotiate process, and stand only as platform linking demand and supply. With the link in place, seller, agent and buyer deal with one another directly.

What benefits will property holders, buyers and agents get working on your Platform?
We have more than 17,500 items, meaning our site makes for a great variety of choice. Traffic at our website at about 100,000 visits per month is benefitting agents and property holders. (As of September 2015)

Dos and Don’ts for would-be investors in proerty industry . . .
This makret of cash-based business is always open to monetary instability. Therefore it is necessary to foresee risk, and calculate about it. Legal matters and documents will not run smooth any time soon, so enough time will be needed in making efforts. Seeking experienced experts’ advice often comes in handly in practice.

At present the country’s real estate rates are at the highest, somewhat hindering FDI. How do you assess it?
That’s correct. But the rates have flattened somewhat in the past few months. It’s ratural about demand and supply. It’s where websites like ours could come in useful to the full. We can help create transparency, then fair competi-tion. We will help rates reach a sustainable level.

Real estate industry’s expectation
Myanmar continues as last frontier country in Southeast Asia. Its sustainable development is expected in all sectors including that of real estate industry.

Suggestion on property industry
Myanmar is at inflection point. Real estate sector has been growing along with other sectors. The momentum of development should rise by knowing how to optimize the tech know-how already existing in developed countries. More-over, Myanmar has the opportunity to study and benefit from other countries’ experiecnces. Fair-deal economic cooperation and transfer of knowledge will mainly help this development process.