PropertyGuru Group Limited

All right, we're going to wait a second for all the attendees to get in and then we'll get started. It looks like almost everyone is here, so we'll get started. Thank you for standing by and welcome to the Property Guru Group first quarter 2024 earnings conference call. Currently, all participants are in a listen-only mode. As a reminder, today's program will be recorded. If anyone objects, please disconnect now. Now, let me introduce Nat Otis, Vice President of Investor Relations. Mr. Otis, please go ahead.

Good morning and good evening. Welcome to Property Guru Group's first quarter 2024 earnings conference call. On the call today are Jeremy Williams, managing director of our flagship business marketplaces, and Joe Disch, CFO. Before we get started, a few reminders. Firstly, our results are available in the earnings release that can be found in the investor section of our website. Secondly, today's webcast is being recorded. A replay and transcript will be available in the investor section of our website. Thirdly, we'll be making forward-looking statements including, but not limited to, statements regarding our future results and expectations for the business. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees and involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to vary materially. Please refer to our earnings release and SEC filings for more information regarding risk factors. Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, and the company is not obligated to update them except as required by law. Fourthly, this call contains non-IFRS financial measures. For a reconciliation of non-IFRS financial measures to the most directly comparable IFRS metric, please see our earnings press release. Lastly, all dollar references are in Singapore dollars unless otherwise stated. With that, let me turn the call over to Jeremy.

Thanks very much, Nat. Thank you for joining us for our first quarter 2020 for earnings conference call. I've been the managing director of Property Guru's Marketplaces business for the past six years, and it's great to be part of today's call. Property Guru recently marks its two-year anniversary of being a publicly listed company, and we thought this would be a good opportunity for me to update everyone on our continued progress. Now to the quarter. We started 2024 with another solid quarter of double digit revenue growth and double digit adjusted EBITDA margin, demonstrating our business model strength and operating leverage. Amongst highlights, our Singapore performance illustrated the value proposition we deliver to our customers, even during a period of slower market activity. We also saw some early signs of property market recovery in Vietnam and Malaysia. The first quarter witnessed governments across our region introducing robust policies that will help accelerate growth in the short to medium term and uplift property market sentiments. I will now zoom in on the key updates and property trends from our markets this quarter. In Singapore, the government continues to project growth in the 1-3% range for 2024, with first quarter GDP coming in at the high end of the range. Of note, construction-related GDP continues to outperform overall levels and was up over 4% in the first quarter, which bodes well for future housing supply. No near-term changes in interest rates are expected as the Singapore Central Bank maintains its current monetary policy while continuing to monitor inflation. The Singapore property market has had a tempered start to the year as higher housing prices, elevated interest rates and overall market uncertainty have weighed on consumer demand. On the sales side, our property sale demand index was down 17% in the quarter, while both prices and supply were up 1% compared to the prior year's quarter. On the rental side, our rental demand index was 38% lower than in the first quarter of 2023. As a result of both the reduced demand and the 66% increase in supply, rental prices were down 7% from a year ago. Whether it's sales or rental, the cautious buyer sentiment in Singapore drives greater agent competition, highlighting our sweet spot in providing vital value-add solutions for agents when transaction volumes slow down. As a result, our top line continues to grow despite softer market conditions, underscoring the optimism we have in our Singapore business going forward. In Malaysia, housing affordability continues to be the primary issue in 2024. Malaysian GDP grew over 4% in the first quarter, in line with central bank expectations for 4% to 5% growth for the full year. The Malaysia Central Bank chose to maintain interest rates at their current level in March, as inflation remains in check. While the limited availability of affordable mid-range housing and the price gap between buyers and sellers in Malaysia remain two of the biggest impediments to a property market recovery, we do see some signs of improving buyer interest. According to our recent Malaysian Consumer Sentiment Survey, one in three Malaysians intend to buy a property in the next two years, even if prices continue to rise. This bodes well for the prospects of a market recovery in the medium term. In Vietnam, while 2023 was a challenging year, we have begun to see green shoots of recovery in 2024. On March 24th, sales listings hit a 12-month high on our Ba Dong San platform and our market demand index was up 15% from the first quarter of 2023. In addition, the Government of Vietnam is working hard to support the property market with additional catalysts. One important way it is addressing this is by trying to bring forward the effective date for three newly amended real estate laws from 2025 to July 1st, 2024. These laws would provide for more consistent and realistic land appraisals, tighten developer requirements across a project's lifecycle, relax rules on foreign ownership, and better organize the agent community. As the leading marketplace in Vietnam, we believe these new laws provide a great opportunity to further improve the structure of the country's property market, especially the component that will require all agents to be affiliated with an agency. According to our recent survey, 65% of consumers view these new laws as positive actions, which should clearly help sentiment. With respect to credit, bank lending rates have decreased in Vietnam since the Prime Minister called for banks to publish average bank lending rates in March. We remain bullish on Vietnam's long-term prospects, which are supported by its population demographics, growing digitisation and high growth potential. Infrastructure investments are facilitating greater urbanisation and contributing to positive trends in the housing sector, reinforcing our confidence in the market. Let me now provide an update on the recent product progress within the group. Property Guru kicked off 2024 with the introduction of new solutions for our customers, coupled with a sustained uptake of previously launched offerings. Central to our DNA, we continue to craft pioneering technology aimed at helping customers make confident property decisions. Our strategic integration of machine learning and generative AI into product development and business operations continues to accelerate our innovation. A prime example of this is our AI video feature, which was rolled out in Singapore. This feature facilitates the auto-creation of a video based on listing images and text descriptions uploaded by our agent partners, helping to deliver a better consumer experience while also being more time efficient for agents. 60% of agents who engage with the AI video feature chose to incorporate it into their listing gallery. In Vietnam, as part of our effort to assist the industry improving property market transparency, this quarter we rolled out professional agent verification. This solution uses several different forms of information to help the company independently verify agent authenticity, enabling further trust and transparency on our marketplace. The response has been very encouraging, with more than 500 agents verified in the first week alone. Lead management, which we launched last year, supports agents with powerful lead-related insights that help them close deals faster. It has garnered increasing approval among agents, as evidenced by a recent survey that shows a 25% increase in satisfaction levels for agents who use the solution. Moving on to our data and software solutions business. DataSense, our proprietary data and analytics tool, brings valuable insights to our customers, helping them confidently make critical strategic investment decisions. February saw the introduction of DataSense Self-Serve for Malaysian agents, facilitating their seamless access to our DataSense modules. They can now leverage our comprehensive data resources to research, negotiate, and advise using timely and relevant insights. In March, we rolled out Demand Analytics Pro in Thailand and now provide coverage in all four markets. Demand Analytics Pro utilizes proprietary data to analyze supply and demand dynamics at all market levels, from as large as countrywide to as small as township or project level. For our developer and government customers, the comprehensive nature of this solution is exactly what they are looking for as they make critical investment decisions. In FinTech, we've made good progress with our digital application for in-principle approval and home loans, which we announced last year. Over half of our applications are now being completed through the guided digital application journey. A select number of our bank partners benefit from an advanced experience that includes features like digital signing, and as a result, their digital application adoption rate is up to 72% of overall submissions. These digital experiences are especially appreciated by consumers, with over 80% of users having consumer satisfaction ratings of either four or five stars in ongoing surveys. Looking ahead, we remain committed to harnessing innovative technology, expanding generative AI applications, and strategically investing in initiatives tailored to navigate the dynamic Southeast Asia property landscape, both in the present and the future. As a final update, I'm proud to share that we have recently released our first sustainability report supported by the recently launched Gurus for Good, our sustainability mandate. I will now hand the call over to Joe to walk you through our financials.