Advisory firms maintain that the online real estate segment has witnessed a two-fold increase in the number of deals in 2014, as compared to 2013. The value of the deals has also increased from $19 million in 2013 to $232 million in 2014 Experts say its more about the consumer sentiment, belief and greater transparency which is culminating into the radical growth in the segment. Users are no longer merely interested in searching for houses, they are also buying houses online now.

1. E-commerce:
a new trend in real estate market?

2. Rise of a
New Sales
Channel
Advisory firms maintain that the online real estate
segment has witnessed a two-fold increase in the number
of deals in 2014, as compared to 2013. The value of the
deals has also increased from $19 million in 2013 to $232
million in 2014
Experts say its more about the consumer sentiment, belief
and greater transparency which is culminating into the
radical growth in the segment. Users are no longer merely
interested in searching for houses, they are also buying
houses online now.

3. Birth of
The
Concept
Online search and compare for real estate is not new in India.
Portals like 99acres.com and MagicBricks.com is there in the
market for more than a decade now, but all these portals
managed to be an information provider for dealers, brokers,
inverses, and buyers
When the chairman of SoftBank, Masayoshi Son, invested ($100
Million) in a two year old portal- Housing.com, it gave an alarming
signal that India is eying for something big in online space and
moving for a change in the entire realty market diaspora. The
second in the league were, Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp, picking
up a 25 per cent stake in another portal- PropTiger.com, also
underscored the appeal
Tata Housing tied-up with e-com giants like Flipcart.com to sell its
property online and received moderate response. This gave an
insight that this channel has a huge potential to grow in coming
years and many players following this route
Players like Signature Global took one step further and created
their own payment gateway system for customers’ ease to avail
online application form. This experiment worked well for them
and they received more than 1,000 applications in less than 90
days

4. Compelling
Potential
> Two-fold increase in the number of
deals in 2014, as compared to 2013
> The value of the deals has also
increased from $19 million in 2013
to $232 million in 2014
> More than 10 million current
online shoppers are slated to grow
double in 2 to 2.5 years time

5. Know The
Buzz World
Many players have already shown their interest to
tie-up with one or more e-com giants. The players
are also looking out to set-up their own payment
gateway systems to tackle the online sales
“The real challenge lies in understanding the
consumer and the way they respond to various
mediums”, says Mr. Pradeep Aggarwal, MD
Signature Global Group. He emphasised on the fact
that listing your property on e-com portals are not
enough, how you market your offers makes a huge
difference. It requires working with your offline
channel where you train you sales force to divert
the customers to avail quality benefits of saving
time and energy, creating greater transparency in
the market place. He also emphasised that the
effective use of online media is very important -
Catch people where they are!

6. Know The
Challenges
Inputs from random real estate sources:
Volume of Transaction: Most of the real estate
players said that they can become partially available
on E-com sites but full transaction availability is yet
a far sighted dream
Transparency: Online sales normally works on
greater transparency. Real estate market has always
played on thin line where the complete
transparency is always a matter of concern
Old Channel: Partners, dealers and other associates
look online marketing as threat to their traditional
business

7. Recent
Buzz
Around
On March 15, 2015, The Times of India reported: E-commerce
companies fuel growth in brick-and-mortar real estate: For
companies that do their business online, e-commerce giants are
spending a lot on brick and mortar. Just 12 hours before the
country rang in the New Year, cab service provider-Ola signed on
20,000 sq ft of prime office space at Embassy Golf Links (EGL), a
premium Grade A business park located just 20 minutes away
from Bengaluru's city center of MG Road.
On Jan 26, 2015, The Hindu: E-commerce expansion benefits real
estate and logistics sectors: India’s warehousing and logistics real
estate segment has benefited immensely from the expansion in
e-commerce over the last two years.
On Jan 27, 2015, JLL: Is E-commerce Replacing Physical Retail In
India?: India’s retail market value was estimated at $520 billion in
2013, and is expected to grow to $950 billion by 2018. With a
CAGR currently pegged at 13%, the Indian e-commerce market is
expected to grow the fastest within the Asia-Pacific Region – with
its market size doubling every 2-2.5 years. This certainly gives us
reason for deep introspection. While the global growth rate of
online shoppers is estimated at 8-10%, India currently has more
than 10 million online shoppers.

8. Recent
Buzz
Around
On Dec 1, 2014: Real Estate + E-commerce = Winning
formula:
Sumit Jain, founder of Commonfloor.com said, “The growth
in the internet base and positive economic sentiment in the
country, as well as the bullish sentiment of investors across
the globe has helped us. Since it is technology that finds the
right property, the traction in this segment is high.”
On Oct 21, 2014, VCCircle reported: E-commerce is set to
drive a commercial real estate boom: The e-commerce
industry may not need retail space, but it may drive the
commercial real estate industry by picking up giant
warehouses or super-sized corporate offices which can
house their large teams comprising customer support, tech,
analytics and marketing.

9. E-commerce in real estate market looks very promising but there is a
lot of ground work needs to be done to provide real value of the
online market. We will come up with more update for you as this
segment dwells in times to come.
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