Startups have grown at an alarming pace in India over the last decade, traversing every aspect of a layman’s life, including the most profitable business of all- real estate. What was considered a distant dream at best, has now become ground reality, thanks to the advancements in technology.
If you were to lease flats or take a property on rent, say in 2006, you’d either have had to enlist a local realtor to help you find properties or count on the hearsay your colleagues or relatives would offer. Fast forward to 2016 though, you can witness a stark difference in the way real estate businesses are conducted.
These changes should be credited to the startups for the most part. Here are a few ways how startups have revamped the real estate game in India.
⦁ Democratized The Market
As mentioned above, you’d usually have had to get in touch with a property management service or a broker to find a house. Depending on the whims of a broker, whose main agenda is probably to get their share of the sale rather than helping you get a good deal is not exactly ideal. But as a number of real estate startups have surfaced, the market looks more streamlined and the chances of a broker pulling one over on you is relatively slimmer.
⦁ ‘App’solutely Amazing!
People will agree when you say finding a house has never been simpler. All you really have to do is download the house searching app of your choice, available on your smartphone’s app store, and after a few taps of the screen and a bit of scrolling, you can find the house you’ve been looking for all along. That’s not the end of the story; most of these apps also give you a virtual tour of the property which can make all the difference in the world when choosing to rent property.
⦁ A New Perspective
There might have been experiences in your past where you’ve had safety concerns about an area you are moving into. But startups, with the help of integrated technological solutions, have found a way around it. For instance, all startups use GPS to determine how good or bad a locality is. These services list out a property’s proximity to all the key areas of the city, including but not limited to shopping malls, hospitals, and other civic amenities.
⦁ Adios Brokers
Real estate brokering was a major business over the last few decades, particularly in all the metropolitan cities of India. These brokers charge a percentage of the deal amount as their commission for facilitating the deal. But as startups have risen, the need for middlemen in a transaction has drastically reduced. This is because the firms put the buyers directly in touch with the parties selling or renting a particular property, saving you the bucks.
⦁ Enhanced Transactions
Startups like Zenify.in, who mainly specialize in dealing with rental properties, have gone to the next level to improve the customer’s overall experience. The establishment, with its many tools, basically handles all the dreaded paperwork for its clients (rental agreements and more), and acts as an interface between the landlord and the tenant. They also provide analytics-driven pricing while eliminating the need of lengthy and often unnecessary documentation process.
The main reason behind the success of real estate-based startups is because they are intent on going the extra mile to provide a satisfactory experience to prospective property sellers, buyers, and renters. Basically, these startups are setting themselves up to a grand stage and are taking real estate transaction to new heights.