KUALA LUMPUR (May 22): Regional affordable long-stay rental solutions provider LiveIn announced on Monday (May 22) it is acquiring KT Management to further expand its business in Malaysia.

Formerly known as Hostel Hunting, LiveIn provides community living, affordable rental and an enhanced online to offline (O2O) experience for their tenants through their online platform, while KT Management is a major player in student accommodation and one of the largest private long-stay rental providers in the northern region of Malaysia.

According to the press release issued by LiveIn on Monday, upon the completion of the acquisition, LiveIn is poised to be the market leader and will provide KT Management to thousands of tenants, LiveIn’s flexible community living solutions and a better O2O experience. This means that after the graduation of KT Management’s student tenants, they will be able to have access to any accommodation within LiveIn.

“Malaysia and Thailand are key markets for us. The market conditions in Southeast Asia are perfect for LiveIn with its young people population, massive numbers of young professionals moving to the cities and the huge property overhang. With our success of this merger, we know we have the template for success. We are now aggressively pursuing acquisition opportunities there and around the region,” said LiveIn.com co-founder and CEO Keek Wen Khai.

LiveIn has been growing aggressively in Malaysia and Thailand by taking advantage of the property overhang in the region and the growing demand for better long-term rental options for university students and young professionals.

“Our LiveIn community managers have been hard at work in Kampar (in Perak) Malaysia integrating LiveIn’s flexible community living solutions and processes to KT Management’s properties and tenants. Now that they are under the LiveIn family, as these university students graduate and move to the city to further their studies or to work, they will be able to seamlessly relocate to our other properties,” said Keek.

Meanwhile, KT Management's founder Kent Tee said in the press release that: “KT Management has been growing year on year. This merger is a natural progression. Integration has been amazing and KT Management’s tenants are already enjoying the benefits.”