INTERVIEW: Miguel Ángel Alemany, General Manager at pisos.com

The 27th Property Portal Watch Conference was held in Madrid this past November; it was our largest event thus far, with 400+ C-Level leaders attending from 40 different countries around the world, among them, Miguel Ángel Alemany, General Manager at pisos.com, who was kind enough to sit down for an interview with us. Alemany attended every European Property Portal Watch Conference since the first one, which was held in Barcelona.

We asked Alemany, in his opinion, what has been the biggest change with the Conference since its early days. He reflected that initially, only European companies attended the event, and now he is elated at the fact that there are companies, literally from all parts of the world coming. He added that it is very beneficial for companies from all continents to come together and share information and procedures with one another, "Sometimes countries are very different, but the context of the process can be exactly the same", stated Alemany.

He brought up an example from a few years ago when an attendee from a French property portal opened up regarding obstacles his company had faced due to another portal in their region. Alemany said that that exchange helped Pisos resolve their own challenges with competitors in Spain.

Pisos has been an established and trusted brand in Spain since 2009; we inquired about the potential of the property portal broadening its horizons internationally, "Sometimes you can expand into other countries but the in-depth knowledge of your local market is key. It is very different and difficult to run a business in another country. You need a lot of resources to do so. An entire team of people would have to be hired", he observed.

With a decade of online presence, Pisos has experience to spare; we wondered if Alemany could share wisdom with other potential startups. "The most important thing, when launching a new company or product, is a great team. A confident core group, who will help and collaborate with you, step by step through the entire process. Part of the success of Pisos.com is that the leader of the team has used the same people who were part of the launch of Pisos ten years ago," said Alemany.

Speaking about the Madrid 2019 Conference, we asked Alemany if he could cite something which stood out to him, "I found all the talk about eBuying very interesting, although I have some doubts about the success in certain countries. How would you manage it, for example? It is a model which is working in the United States very well, but maybe the regulations in Europe would make it more complicated. Sometimes what is successful in the US takes a couple of years to start in Europe," he stated.

What is next for Pisos? "Our goal is to grow our number of clients each year and to build a solid trust between us and them. Also to increase the listings, focus on development, improve our product and the quality of the content, because all of these make part of a great experience for the end-user", concluded Alemany.

Over 220 attendees are expected at our next event - the Asian Property Portal Watch Conference in Thailand. The Conference will be held in Bangkok from 26th to 27th February 2020, and it will run for two days, featuring expert Industry Speakers, Innovative Companies at the forefront of the online real estate industry. The Asian Property Portal Watch Conference also offers amazing Social Events, a perfect opportunity for networking.
We hope to see you there.

Join us February 26-27 for the Property Portal Watch Conference Bangkok 2020.