Online realty pioneer aims for the top 

Nitesh Khirwal, managing director of House.com.mm, said in an exclusive interview that the company was ready for the challenge posed by newcomers to the market after having worked to secure listings from the biggest developers in the country and almost all its property agents and brokers.
House.com.mm, which is part of the German-based Rocket Internet group, have been doing business in Myanmar since past five years.
“We have seen intense competition within the sector,” Khirwal said. “More people are starting to use the Internet now, and more and more companies are looking for opportunities in this country. We see that there is increasing interest in the online real estate industry.
“The market competition will definitely increase because most people are increasingly going online. Setting up a website is not a very difficult thing. So, we always make sure that we can offer the best deals, have the best employees and excellent marketing strategies in place. We are also very active in engaging with all the stakeholders in this market, ranging from developers to people who are looking to buy and sell their properties.”
Khirwal claims his website is the leader in online property sales in Myanmar, attracting 500,000 visitors and boasting an average of almost 100,000 listings a month at competitive prices.
The company was established in 2012 as one of six companies under Rocket Internet.
 Khirwal believes that the company’s status as the market pioneer sets it apart from its competitors. International expertise acquired from operations elsewhere in Asia and in Latin America adds to the company’s depth, he said.
“We are in a position to bring to this market some of the best practices internationally. This experience helps us to improve the level of our services in Myanmar,” he said. “Internet penetration is growing very rapidly in Myanmar, which is a really positive sign. 
“Some other countries like Indonesia and the Philippines have already developed. 
“We have already gone through that journey in other countries, and can quickly bring that know-how to Myanmar. We are very confident that the same thing will happen here.”
Khirwal said the firm invested a lot of money in Myanmar to set up a big team dominated by local employees. He admitted that finding local talent proved a challenge for the firm when it entered Myanmar. But the company managed to address this problem in cooperation with a sister company, Work.com.mm.
“Initially, the challenges for us were Internet connectivity and human capital, both of which we have actively addressed. We have trained a lot of employees, and for Internet connectivity, we are fortunate that telecom operators have arrived,” he said.
Khirwal said the firm spent a lot of time and effort in staff training to help address the shortage of human capital in the country.
“We have regular training sessions for our employees. Some of them have been sent abroad to get intensive training. We always make sure that we bring international training modules to the country by improving our employees’ language, presentation and technology skills,” he said. 
The company holds offline events to improve its sales and brand awareness. It is organising the Housing and Lifestyle Expo 2017, the third run of its sales events, in Yangon on June 23-25.
“We have held a lot of events which helped people to know how to search for property online,” Khirwal said. “Once we did that, the number of visitors coming to our website increased substantially. Now we are happy with the growth that we have had here. We are going to invest more heavily in Myanmar, as we see a lot of potential here.”