Going by the Tamil saying, ‘Veetai katti paar, kalyanam panni paar,' both constructing a house, and conducting a marriage, are tough projects. Having done the latter for many years now, through BharatMatrimony.com, the Chennai-based Consim Info Pvt Ltd is into the former, too, in the form of Indiaproperty.com.

Here is Ganesh Vasudevan, Vice-President, Indiaproperty.com (http://bit.ly/F4TGaneshV), sharing with Business Line , his views on some of the aspects relating to the online property business.

Excerpts from the email interview:

Would you like to trace the evolution of technology use in the real-estate space? What do you see as the way forward?

Technology use in online real-estate search has evolved significantly from simple search routines to the use of faceted search, which helps refine and drill down on multiple parameters. The search results thereof give listings that precisely match the user's requirements.

Faceted search has enabled quick and intuitive search online. Integrating the search results with IVR/SMS systems has enabled instantaneous establishment of contact between the buyer and seller, in addition to traditional email-based contact.

With the help of Google maps API, we are able to give a fair idea of the geographical location of a project, with details of nearby amenities. Going forward, significant change drivers will be mobile apps which, in conjunction with the growth in 3G networks and GPS technology, will help users in searching for property on the move, with automatic identification of position using lat-long triangulation.

How different is the Indian user of property portal, compared with his/her global counterpart?

Fundamentally there are no significant differences as the needs addressed by online property portals are essentially the same for both user types, i.e., providing relevant, updated information and facilitating transactions. Given this greatest common denominator, the usage patterns are similar.

As regards Indian portals, domestic consumers use online search primarily to shortlist properties, while NRIs seek further transactional information specifically on the last-mile logistics in finalising the deal. NRI interest is high in premium and lifestyle projects like villas in gated communities and waterfront projects in the metros and well-developed suburbs and in land projects backed by reputed developers. Most NRI queries are oriented towards investments, hence demand is relatively unaffected by interest rates compared to domestic consumers.

Over the last 12 months, when demand in the market has been fairly robust, our tracking on portal usage shows that the average time taken by a domestic user to decide on a property is about three-four months while the NRI user takes a much shorter time.

Can you describe the features of the algorithm deployed in your portal?

Indiaproperty search is powered by an open source C++ based search engine that helps users in searching faster and helps in serving more accurate results. We track the properties viewed by a user and based on the “user behaviour pattern” the algorithm suggests similar properties.

Does the growth of tech-driven property deals suffer from the opacity of the real estate industry?

Property purchase is a high-involvement purchase decision and this is a once-in-a-lifetime transaction for most consumers. The search and decisioning process has been simplified with the entry of online property portals, and now the consumer has the power of information to guide his search; and to that extent, the opacity involved has been reduced. However, opacity involved in the last mile of the transaction continues to be a challenge, and there is immense scope for technology enablement.

As an online transaction, do you find that property deals share features common to other ecommerce products services?

Most property deals are initiated online and get completed offline due to the high involvement nature of the transaction. The ecosystem to support a fully online transaction is not available in most developing countries. Subscription-based services, however, share many common features with online classifieds and advertisements.

What are the two-three things you would suggest that users of property portals keep in mind? (Tips for users, both buyers and sellers.)

Users of property portals seeking to buy or sell property should judiciously choose a credible portal that provides both a wide choice of properties and depth of information for each property in the market. Given that property search is an involved process spread over a few months, users will do well to check the portal's capability to do the following in addition to providing adequate width and depth of information:

(a) Does the portal have the capability to assess and understand the user's requirement and assist the user on an ongoing basis in identifying a property that matches the user's requirements?

(b) Does the portal provide personalised service in terms of following up with builders/ sellers on behalf of the user and handholding the user to the point of identifying and purchasing the right property?

Portals that provide the above services will help the user in evaluating a deal, and taking an informed decision.

On a general note, your views on how e-commerce can be promoted in the country.

Internet usage in India has grown exponentially, driven by technology and infrastructure enablers like broadband and 3G networks and increasingly affordable smartphones.

There is a large and growing population which is extremely comfortable in searching for information online but concluding the transaction offline.

The deterrent preventing growth of full online transactions is primarily in the consumers' mind; and the roots can be traced to a variety of reasons ranging from the simple ones like unclear merchant policies to the larger ones like online fraud. For example, most ecommerce sites do not have a documented “failed transaction policy.”

Failed transactions are a reality, given the poor speed of Internet connectivity; and anyone who has been saddled with a failed transaction will vouch for the pain that one goes through in seeking resolution.

At the other end of the spectrum is the fear of online fraud; many of us don't realise that we are exposed to a higher risk of credit card fraud at a restaurant than online!. Hence a concerted effort in terms of educating the consumer on the true risks of online transactions backed by robust business processes and refund policies will go a long way in converting the online search population to become transactors.

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