Online platform makes it easier to buy, sell, and lease properties

By Adrian Paul B. Conoza
Special Features Writer

PROPERTYACCESS Philippines recently launched its own online platform that aims to make buying, selling, and leasing real estate properties easier for Filipinos.

Founded in 2018 by real estate experts Hiroki Kazato and Shiela Baylon, PropertyAccess provides users with real estate multi-listings, intelligent data, and analysis. It also serves to connect real estate developers, agents, institutional/retail buyers and sellers, landlords, and tenants across Southeast Asia. Aside from the online platform, PropertyAccess’ businesses include consultancy, transactions, and events.

Mr. Kazato, chief executive officer of PropertyAccess, said the company was founded with the vision of “elevating the real estate experience through transparency of information and accessibility to a wider market.”

According Mr. Kazato, the “immense growth potential” foreseen in the Philippine market, with the country as one of PropertyAccess’ top market for transactions, pushed the company to build the PropertyAccess Philippines platform.

“With this website, property buyers will be able to access properties [easily]. At the same time, they will be able to look through key information and data that some websites and portals failed to provide,” Mr. Kazato said during the launch event in Makati City.

Ms. Baylon, chief revenue and partnership officer of PropertyAccess, said the main focus of PropertyAccess was to act as a bridge for Japanese investors interested in the Philippine market. Now, she said the company hopes to further tap into the Philippine market with this newly-launched platform.

“The Japanese [market] is using it. However, we also want the Filipinos to [use] it, and we want to make it more friendly too,” she said.

Modeled after innovative websites from leading markets in the region such as Singapore and Australia, the newly designed website has a new user interface that makes the platform easy to understand.

Not only is the website designed with the Filipino market in mind, but it also aims to bring real estate investment closer to a younger demographic.

“One of our goals is to bridge the gap between real estate and the younger generations,” Alyssa Narvasa, the company’s head of product, said while presenting the new website.

She added that with this new website, PropertyAccess wants to show Filipinos that real estate is not a scary venture, but rather a practical and sound investment. “We’re here to serve as a transactional environment that is safe, legitimate, intelligent, and credible,” she said.

The website’s home page has a search bar that conveniently guides users on what to look for based on their preferences. Featured listings are located underneath, while location tags are also provided below for users who prefer to search based on area. Tailored searches can be made through the website’s various search pages.

Overviews of every search result can be accessed without extra steps. By clicking on a listing, a comprehensive profile of the property can be viewed, together with vital information such as the price, size, description, details, location, and even the listing agent.

A key addition to the website is its Affordability Calculator, designed to make searching for properties less intimidating, especially for first-time buyers. It provides the expected monthly expense of a desired property based on the information given by the user.

“It gives the buyer a sense of empowerment, a sense of preparation, which makes them more confident to move forward with his investment,” Ms. Narvasa noted.

The website also caters to sellers, real estate agents, and brokers by helping them find customer leads for their property listings. For P999 a month, they can post an unlimited number of listings without any commission sharing with PropertyAccess Philippines.

The website also has a feature called Leads Filtering. With the help of trained professionals who use a criteria “based on logic and experience,” quality leads are filtered in and sent to agents or brokers.

It also has articles on real estate news, home care tips, and design trends, among others.

PropertyAccess is also holding regular events for the real estate industry, all of which are staged in Japan. For this year, the company will hold the International Property and Investment Conference in May, the third Japan International Property Awards, and the World Investment Fair, both in November.