PropertyGuru Group’s vision has always been to empower communities to live, work, and thrive in tomorrow’s cities.

“As a responsible market leader, we strive towards empowering everyone in their property journey make confident property decisions through relevant content, actionable insights, and world-class service. From enabling homebuyers find and finance their dream homes, to helping expats find suitable accommodations, to supporting our enterprise clients make the right investments, to sharing authentic first party data with banks and valuers and to providing meaningful information to policymakers, we are there with each stakeholder, guiding them at every step of their way,” PropertyGuru Group chief executive officer and managing director Hari Krishnan said.

PropertyGuru Asia Real Estate Summit (ARES), the thought leadership platform of PropertyGuru Group (NYSE: PGRU), held its highly anticipated ninth edition with the theme “Powering Communities,” focusing on how responsible leaders can build and improve tomorrow’s cities.

The first segment of ARES 2023, “Live: Future of Communities,” continued with a keynote address on new economic drivers and the outlook for Asia in 2024 from Sumana Rajarethnam, director, South-East Asia, Economist Intelligence Corporate Network.

The second segment, “Work: Future of Business,” kicked off with Chelsea Perino, managing director, Global Marketing & Communications, The Executive Center, who delivered a talk on the creative evolution of workspaces and hybrid work arrangements.

Concluding the second segment and the morning sessions was a presentation from PropertyGuru For Business, showcasing the latest investments in data science to develop products and solutions for enterprise customers and partners in the Southeast Asian region.

The afternoon sessions opened with “Thrive: Future of Leisure” with a virtual presentation from Malaysia’s David Chong, chief operating officer of REHDA Institute, who talked about building affordability in megacities. It continued with panel discussions on destination dining, the rise of pet culture in urban areas, and demographic changes reshaping property markets.

ARES continues to be an inclusive and diverse with half of its line-up comprising women and/or members of the LGBTQ+ community. This year, Shane Bhatla, associate director, Equal Asia Foundation, delivered the a talk on inclusive language in real estate for minorities and people with disabilities.

The final segment of the summit, “Thrive: The Future of Innovation,” opened with a keynote from India’s Vinu Daniel, founder of Wallmakers. The climate-responsive architect, who was recently named one of TIME100 Next and delivered a well-received TED2023 talk last April, was presented the PropertyGuru Visionary Award at ARES 2023 for his sustainable designs using mud and debris.

The fourth segment included The Leaders Panel discussion on multi-sector real estate, industry resilience, and challenges in sustainable development.