House-hunting in India invariably means dealing with a broker. And the archetypal Indian broker is someone who tells you to wait at a particular traffic junction, where he arrives on a motorcycle half hour late. Off you go with him to see a few houses — some unfurnished, some “wardrobes only” and a few “fully furnished”. While talking to you, he’s always on the phone, sometimes on two phones at once. He’s also well informed, and knows exactly what’s available in which building. Perhaps most intriguing of all is the shared network — if you were to meet a rival broker the next day, chances are he’ll show you the same places again!
However, Indian brokers now have nimbler competitors to deal with — property websites. These come with a few advantages of their own — mainly, that they cut out or replace the middleman. Vineet Singh, EVP and Business Head of the popular 99acres.com, says,“Property sites offer direct access. Buyers can browse through the listings and zero in on the property of their choice.”
Easy access
Ganesh Vasudevan, CEO of IndiaProperty.com, believes online portals give buyers “the whole horizon of available properties” in the market. “Nowadays house owners themselves are actively involved in listing their property for sale or rent, giving a chance, to both the tenant and the owner, to interact directly with each other. It has made the task less tedious and has drastically reduced the time involved in looking for the right property,” he says.
Vasudevan believes that trust in e-commerce portals is “becoming stronger” in India and among non-resident Indians (NRI) and that consumer lifestyles are leaning towards online services that can be accessed anywhere. Adds Singh, “In this age, it is difficult for buyers and sellers to spare time and visit brokers. This problem can be circumvented by property sites since they can also be accessed through mobiles.”
Online also has the advantage of reaching out to a global audience, especially the Indian diaspora. IndiaProperty.com, which claims to be “the number one real estate portal of south India” sees 15 per cent of its traffic come from Gulf countries — largely because of the high percentage of south Indian expats in the region. The site recently held a real estate expo — Gruhapravesh — in Dubai, which Vasudevan calls a “big success,” and more events are expected in September, in Dubai and Doha. 99acres too keeps an eye on the global audience. Singh says his portal has a separate NRI page with customised solutions that exclusively showcases choice projects and provides the relevant information to NRI users.
Interesting trends
However, agents remain an important part of the real estate ecosystem, with many buyers keen to talk to locality-specific industry insiders who can verify the seller’s credentials before finalising a deal.
The response has been to introduce features such as verified property listings and enhance the user experience. Vasudevan says his site wants to bring the buyer as close as possible to the real property, adding that nearly 75 per cent of his site’s listings are validated by his staff. Buyers can also tap into the site for 3D floor plans, video maps, loan assistance, legal requirements and evaluation of a project or the locality or even the intermediaries involved.
Singh estimates the annual online real estate market at between 450,000 and 500,000 flats sold. He says 99acres accounts for 150,000 to 180,000 of these. Users are mostly from urban areas. 99acres sees up to 22 per cent of its traffic from the Delhi NCR region, followed by Mumbai with about 18 per cent and Bengaluru at 10 per cent.
Most users are from the highest socio-economic tiers and are typically men in the age group of 27 to 45 years. Singh points out an interesting trend — home seekers are getting younger, but not necessarily buying. “While the average age of the house seeker has gone down from 35 to 26 in the past four to five years, a serious buyer on our site is still around 35 years old.”
Singh is optimistic of the future for the online property market. “While there are no industry standard reports to corroborate the findings, we see the internet real estate segment growing to between Rs2.5 billion (Dh155 million) and Rs3 billion this year. Three years back, this figure was at Rs800 million,” he says. And with surging mobile traffic, “this number will grow even further as we bring convenience and real time information to the seeker”.
