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Imagine finding a rented accommodation or buying a flat through a virtual tour instead of going door-to-door with a broker! A big relief, right? To bring down the time and effort in finding a house, 12 IIT graduates have formed a group and created an online map-based housing portal called Housing.co.in.
For example, if you are searching for a 2BHK flat with rent below Rs 30,000, you can click on the tabs on top to filter your requirements. A click of the button will take you on an online tour of the house, right from the drawing room to the bedrooms and also a peep into basic amenities the locality offers.
The differentiator
But, what is so different about this portal?
“Interestingly, Google receives one lakh real-estate-based queries daily. But the problem with the real estate space is lack of authentic information on houses for rent or sale. We have an in-house data-collection team which physically goes and verifies every information of the house and the locality before uploading it on the Web site,” says Advitiya Sharma, an IIT-Bombay graduate and one of the founders of the portal that was launched in June 2012.
The data-collecting team uploads high resolution photos of the flats and geo-codes them to enable the portal provide search tags for neighbouring schools, hospitals, grocery stores, and commuting details (to stations, bus stops, eat-outs, and so on).
While users do not pay anything for the services, Housing.co.in charges brokers bi-annual or annual subscription fee for listing property. At present, the portal does not charge owners for property listing, but it plans to charge a fee for this, Sharma said.
In its infancy, the portal has many challenges to overcome — competition from bigger players such as Magicbricks.com and 99acres.com and its limited reach. But that is not deterring the founders from their task. An uncluttered user experience, user-friendly mobile apps and special features such as price heat map (showing property rate variations over the past couple of years) is what makes Housing.co.in different.
The portal also provides information on availability of gas pipeline, microwave or air-conditioner, sofa sets or dining tables and other amenities.
Backed by the likes of former Network 18 CEO Haresh Chawla and emerging entrepreneur Zishaan Hayath, the portal has received two rounds of funding in the past 10 months.
Expansion mode
The portal currently has 1,500 listed properties for rent and 1,000 properties for re-sale in Mumbai. “We plan to take the number of rental properties to 2,500 in the next few months. We will also be listing upcoming projects of builders in Mumbai within the next one month,” Sharma added.
After nearly a year since its launch in Mumbai, the portal now plans to expand its reach to cities such as Hyderabad, Pune and Gurgaon.
To support its expansion plans, the company has recruited 10 IIT graduates this year.
>nivedita.ganguly@thehindu.co.in
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