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Hitwise Intelligence - Sandra Hanchard - Asia Pacific

Analyst Weblog

« Singapore: Social Networks continue to trump Search Engines | Searches for Property for Sale and Credit Cards attract strong growth in NZ »

Property searches attracting the highest growth amongst finance queries in Singapore

May 14, 2010

Recently we analysed the online financial behaviour of Singapore Internet users, and found an increase during the first quarter of 2010 in search queries around financial needs, including searching for properties to buy and to rent, mortgages, loans, savings and credit cards.

In particular we found strong growth in property searches for sale and rent in Singapore reflecting high property demand and price growth. Interest in the stock market, reflected by search behaviour, cooled in comparison to the property market.

Here were our financial search portfolios comparing Q1 of 2010 to the same time last year:

Source: Experian Hitwise

* Property for sale searches (eg. ‘properties for sale in singapore’, ‘house for sale in singapore’) increased by 407% in the first quarter of the year compared to Q1 2009, 183.1% up on Q42009.
* A peak in property for sale searches in early March 2010 reflects expected new price highs in 2010.
* Searches for mortgages were up by 164.8% year on year, and increased 14% over the quarter.
* Property for rent searches (eg. Variations of ‘houses for rent in singapore’, ‘property for rent in singapore’) increased by 428.2% in the first quarter of the year compared to Q1 2009 and 51.5% over the quarter.
* Searches for loans increased by 239.1% year on year, and increased 68.2% over the quarterly. ‘Personal loan’ and ‘housing loan’ were the two most popular search terms.

* Credit Card searches increased by 225% over the year compared to Q12009.
* Branded credit card search terms dominated the leading queries, including, ‘citibank credit card’, ‘uob credit card, ‘ocbc credit card’, ‘dbs credit card’ and ‘hsbc credit card’.
* Searches for credit card promotions were amongst the top queries, such as ‘uob credit card promotion’, as Singapore consumers shopped around for the best deals.

* Searches for savings increased by 267.3% over the year, and increased by 39.5% over the quarter, indicating that Singaporeans remained cautious overall about their finances.
* Stocks, Shares and Bonds related queries were up 40.7% year on year, but down 16.9% as the property market gained the interest of investors.

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In Categories Finance

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