Working and living in the metro has its pros and cons. Yes, there’s a lot of opportunities available in the city and almost everything you’ll need in order to live by is available in malls and shopping centers located in major business and leisure areas.
But with more and more people trying to clump together in Metro Manila, finding the right place to live in can often times be very difficult. But in this time where information is at the tip of our fingertips, there’s usually an app to help us out. One particular app is called Lamudi.
Lamudi is actually a real estate marketplace that operates in over 20 countries since 2013. This year, the company has landed in the Philippines and has released an app for anyone who’s trying to get a place to purchase, invest or rent.
We took the app for a spin and here are our initial thoughts.
THE GOOD
Basically, Lamudi is a shopping app for houses, condos and other types of properties. The app allow users to check property listings on the go. After a splash screen, users will be able to select what kind of property they are looking for (condo, house, lot, etc), its location, its floor size, number of bedrooms and of course the price.
What’s nice about the app is that it’s able to pull up the number of properties that match your specified criteria in a matter of seconds. Moreover, Lamudi is able to apply several filters to their listings in order for users to streamline their search.
Once a user finalizes his search criteria, a search result is displayed. Each search result displays the number of rooms and bathrooms in the property, its floor size in square meters and a short description. Images of the property can also be viewed in case the advertiser decided to attach images to the ad.
There’s also a map view which plots all the listed properties in a single map. Furthermore, the app comes with a dedicated call and SMS buttons so users can call or send a message to the advertiser directly from the app.
THE BAD
In terms of UI and functionality, there’s really not much to complain about the Lamudi app. The overall UI design is simple and intuitive. In terms of functionality, the app does what it’s supposed to do however, it does seem to crash rather frequently.
We tested the Android version of the app and there were several instances where it suffered from force closes. There were also times when we had difficulty opening the app from the homescreen. There were times that we had to close the app from the applications manager just to restart it.
THE VERDICT
There are numerous apps for mobile phones that cater to the real estate market. But there are only a few that have a specific focus on a certain locality like what Lamudi offers. In this respect, the app triumphs over its competitors by providing localized services that are relevant to Filipinos.
But of course, there are some issues that needs some fixing. For starters, the app seems a bit unstable and suffers from frequent crashes. We weren’t able to check the stability of the iOS version, but we do hope it’s better than the one for Android. We’d also love if there’s an authority rating for advertisers to help make the selection process feel safer for customers.
Lastly, although almost all functional features are already in place, there’s definitely room for improvement when it comes to UI design. Otherwise, Lamudi is actually quite nice and useful. For this reason, we’re giving Lamudi an overall rating of 3 out of 5.
