Developers go e-way: Buy homes online
Real estate portals, the term, is widely common among home buyers looking to tag on that perfect floor plan and price of flats, however, builders have recently taken this process of online medium a notch higher. In a breakthrough move, the real estate industry now offers the buyers the convenience of buying a home online. With the growing participation of internet in individual’s lives, developers have tapped on the potential of the online space for selling their spin-offs and some have even made it big.
However, there remains a catch which can smudge this whole over-hyped online real estate portal medium. Firstly, it is a de rigueur for the buyers to re-think before clicking the button, since purchasing via online booking makes the invested money non-refundable. Secondly, only a handful of investors and NRI buyers are au fait with online transactions and can complete it in the right order.
Switching to online media
For developers, the online space offers the podium to connect with the targeted clients with the click of a button. From first contact to getting handy with basic information and taking it all the way to online booking and ultimately sales, the concept of real estate portals has done the trick for the developers. Furthermore, market research confirms that more than 75% of the home search in India takes place online. This, as a result, has fuelled the need to offer buyers with the option of buying home online.
Having said that, developers like Tata Housing has formulated a tie-up with banks such as IDBI, in a bid to speed up the online home sales. A buyer, booking for a Tata Housing project can pay an initial amount of Rs 50000 via credit or debit card, book the house and pay the remaining amount and complete the leftover formalities online. As much as it sounds convenient, it has taken the real estate market by a storm.
Benefits both buyers and developers
An online space will not only aid the buyers check out a wide array of properties in the market, acquire details of the different homes and prices, but it will also have an upper hand in offering an abode in a particular area or neighborhood. As per market experts, since more than 50% of real estate buying decisions are based on internet research, the concept of researching online for that perfect home has crossed the boundaries of Tier-I cities and entered Tier-II cities.
According to key developers of the nation, there has been a major uptick in the number of real estate transactions online. Experts quote that with the parameter of information shared in the websites increasing each day, the online real estate business is likely to expand at a CAGR of 40-60% in the days to come. Tagged as one of the cheapest options to sell homes, builders are of the notion that online space will have a key role in home sales in following years, since for every 1000 homes the money spend on online marketing is not more than Rs 2-3 crore.
