bproperty.com buys Lamudi Bangladesh

Real estate marketplace bproperty.com has bought Lamudi.com.bd, another portal for buying, selling and renting property, a move which is expected to give them supremacy in the business.

Mark Nosworthy, CEO of bproperty.com, confirmed the deal but declined to reveal the amount they paid. “We are not disclosing the amount under confidentiality with Lamudi Bangladesh.”

Nosworthy's company is scheduled to hold a press conference today to disclose the new development alongside business plans.

Bproperty.com is a new kind of business venture that provides all legal and banking support to the purchasers and gives marketing support to the real estate and land developers in a single place.

It is a part of Emerging Markets Property Group (EMPG), which also owns top UAE property portal bayut.com and Pakistan's largest property portal Zameen.com.

The business runs in Bangladesh under a commission model, which is about 5 percent based on the property's location, utility services and urbanisation.

Nosworthy, also chief financial officer of the EMPG, told The Daily Star that they had a complete view of the real estate market.

He said they are very committed to improving Bangladesh's real estate industry and could work for mutual benefit.

Opening up in Bangladesh in 2016, bproperty.com said to have thoroughly surveyed and validated over 119,000 buildings in Dhaka and currently has nearly 24,000 properties for sale and rent on their portal.

An official of Lamudi Bangladesh said their managing director, Anne Maria Hermans, had already left having informed of the development. Their Dhaka office also stopped all communication and contact as Lamudi Bangladesh since last month, he said. About 30 employees, who will get salaries for January, can join bproperty.com following an interview, said a senior executive requesting anonymity.

“Actually bproperty.com is buying Lamudi's client base as they are not getting business success in Bangladesh seven years past its launch,” he said.

Lamudi Bangladesh currently has exclusive agreements with different developers, including Concord Group of Companies, Navana Real Estate, Priyoprangon, Imagine Properties, Rangs Properties, Acme Technologies, Rakeen Development Company, Anwar Landmark, Union Development and Technologies, The Civil Engineers, Japan Taguchi Construction Co, Adobe Builders, and JMI Builders and Construction.

Following the deal, bproperty.com has already started working with these companies in an attempt to push business forward.

The company has already expanded business from Dhaka and Chattogram into Sylhet and Cumilla and aims to widen coverage across the country within a short time.

It already has two offices in Gulshan and Banani. It recently opened another in Mirpur and is setting up one more in Uttara.

“Our business volume has been growing manifold in the last two years and we want to maintain the growth and that is why bproperty.com was very keen to buy Lamudi Bangladesh's business from the beginning,” said a top executive of bproperty.com.

Lamudi has been earning from advertisements on their websites and other communication tools alongside branding programmes but the business model will definitely be changed, said bproperty.com officials.

Though Lamudi has sold their business in Bangladesh, it has good business in Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Mexico and Peru with about 7 lakh listings worldwide.