PropertyGuru lays off 79 employees amid 'comprehensive review' of operations
PropertyGuru's Singapore office. (Photo: PropertyGuru)
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SINGAPORE: Singapore-based property technology company PropertyGuru Group will cut 79 jobs as it undergoes organisational changes.
The layoffs were announced in a letter sent to employees on Tuesday (Feb 27) by PropertyGuru Group CEO and managing director Hari V Krishnan.
"We are undertaking a comprehensive review to re-architect our organisation, ensuring we focus our investments on businesses based on their market potential," Mr Krishnan wrote in the letter, which was later published on the company's website.
"This involves continuing to evolve our organisational structure, team composition, operational processes and smartly automating where possible, guided by a clear focus on our identified priorities."
As part of this process, PropertyGuru will close "operationally non-scalable and non-profitable businesses", he said.
These include two of their nine branches in Vietnam related to their marketplace business.
The company will also consolidate technology delivery and improve customer support by "redesigning roles across marketing, product and enterprise sales", he added.
"Volatile market conditions and changing customer needs require us to adapt our strategy so that we can continue to grow sustainably," Mr Krishnan said.
"It's essential that we periodically reassess our progress and take proactive steps to future-proof our business."
"This decision was made after careful and objective identification of the roles for PropertyGuru's next phase of growth," he added.
The 79 laid-off employees represent about 5 per cent of PropertyGuru's total workforce. A PropertyGuru representative told CNA that the company will not be sharing a breakdown of the layoffs by market.
In addition to Singapore and Vietnam, PropertyGuru also operates in Malaysia and Thailand. It previously operated in Indonesia as well.
Retrenched employees will be provided with enhanced severance packages which include severance of "one month for each year of service capped at 12 months or country statutory severance pay, whichever is higher".
The packages also include a one-month base salary goodwill payment as well as an annual performance bonus or commission payment.
Affected employees will also continue to have medical insurance coverage and access to the company's employee assistance programme for three months from their last date of employment.
Additionally, they will be allowed to keep their work laptops and will receive outplacement services with a personal consultant for three months, Mr Krishnan said.
Those on employment visas, meanwhile, will get up to three months of extended leave without pay, repatriation support if needed and financial support for early exits of residential tenancy.
"We understand that these decisions are challenging. I empathise deeply, having personally experienced both sides of such changes," Mr Krishnan said.
