Real estate Apps are redefining the Real Estate market, development and advancement of technology is adding to the progress of this sector. Today thanks to different apps buying, selling, renting, making payments for property or even designing a house has become a simpler process.
Smart phones are changing the Real estate scenario. “We are living in a mobile first world! By 2022, smartphone and mobile phone penetration in India will increase to 60% of the population, which is a staggering 829 million users, according to a CISCO report. Today, on an average, 90% of the time on mobiles is spent on applications and mobile apps will form the core of all things digital. Real estate is also picking up this trend in a massive way. We are seeing a wave of apps with use cases in real estate. While the traditional ones address the transactional elements of buying, selling, renting etc., with the new age tech innovators there are a plethora of apps like aggregators of spaces, facilities management apps, energy management etc.,” states Abhay Kumar, Head Marketing, JLL India.
Technology matters
Gone are the days where people looked for the classifieds section, hunted the “For Sale” signs and bargained with brokers. “Real estate has entered the digital world and most realtors and developers have an app. Real estate apps are a blessing to buyers, it eliminates the effort of visiting various sites and gives access to everything easily. In today’s tech savvy and busy world apps make it convenient and easy to search and to get in touch directly with the end customer, therefore saving time and human resource. On the other hand the app or the website has to be top notch to convert any visitor or viewer to a potential buyer,”says Ashok Mohanani, Chairman EKTA World and Vice – President NAREDCO Maharashtra.
Advantages of Real Estate Apps
With the help of technology, everything is available on the fingertips. “Developers and sellers have been able to expand their reach with the help of technology. They can reach out to defined groups of buyers and hit the right targets. A seller operating from Mumbai can tap on to a buyer in search of a second home in Kanya kumari. To provide customers with a seamless purchase experience, use of technology is imperative for developers. One can provide buyers with virtual representations of what their home could look like,” Nibhrant Shah, Founder and CEO, Isprava and Lohono Stays.
Apps have reduced the gap in connecting developers to consumers in the primary market and connecting sellers to consumers in case of resale properties. For consumers, relevant options and information are available at one place, which would otherwise not be possible without technology. Also after the launch of RERA, consumers also get to know the actual status of construction of home which makes the complete process transparent .
Real Estate apps have given developers a platform to showcase their properties and reach out to a wider audience. “They can provide their potential buyers and users with all the necessary information and details simply on their screens. They can also reach out to locations further away and provide information to buyers in distant places who would be interested in investing in real estate. They can also collect necessary data about users like their email addresses and contact information. They can aim to send the right message to the right person, hence targeting a befitting customer. However, all these advantages are available to all the developers which increases competition and sums up to be a disadvantage to the developer. The competitors can keep a check on all the details like the price range or special amenities offered by a certain developer and ape it. This could cause a developer to lose its uniqueness or succumb to a competitive atmosphere,”adds Shah.
From buyers’ perspective, tenants etc. the biggest advantage is convenience. Housing.com for example is an online real estate portal which has features such as Smart Search Technology tools like Neighbourhood Map View, Locality Price Trends, Featured Collections and the industry-first-natural language-based search which has made it easier for developer’s sellers and even potential home buyers and tenants.
“As an end user not only one can get to view of customized options, but can also access the tailored content meant for his specific use. Consider any real estate app today – the personalization on offer can be mind boggling. One can choose the location, tower, floor, amenities, access to facilities like schools, hospitals etc. and also get real time view of the locality to make the buying, leasing decision easier. One can also monitor the construction and interiors progress through AR/VR apps”, adds Kumar.
Co-working spaces have caught up with new work culture trend and offer apps that enable freelancers and businesses to book shared office spaces .Sandeep Singh, Founder, Flexispaces.com says, “Today a person can easily get a co-working space on lease or rent, using the app. The app gives a clear picture of the facilities provided by the owner of the co-working space. Apps promise a bright future to the real estate sector. Few of the Indian cities have already started using apps for hunting or selling a house with many to use it in the coming time. Access to information, customer expectations are changing to what it was earlier. The paperless transaction has become the norms of app technology today”.
Limitations
Buying a property is a substantial event in one’s life as it involves shelling out a huge amount of money. While many manage buying a home through their savings, others depend on a bank loan “Apps do help in finding and locating houses however most apps do not emphasize on the surroundings etc. People need to research about the property within their family and friends,” says Mohanani.
Overall, technology has reduced the time of property searching and optimizing the time and cost in the post conversion process. “One place where technology has not practically taken a leap is the finalization phase where users have to do a site visit before finalizing on a home,” sates Shah.
Earlier to find a home online, a user would have to go through a number of listed properties after which the user was expected to apply filters to narrow down on the options. Since these were static hard filters, users’ unstated preferences (For E.g. proximity to railway station, proximity to work,) were not accounted for. Hence, the user would have to turn to Real Estate consultants for their advice.
This is where; the machine learning algorithms need to understand the users’ digital footprint, behaviour, stated preferences and suggest relevant properties. Also, human touch in terms of communication always helps connect with home buyers giving them a sense of assurance. “The app ecosystem today continues to face privacy and security issues. There could be other issues like inconsistency in user experience over an e-commerce site versus an app. Hence, the creators and the users both need to be aware of the value and the risks associated with mobile applications before jumping to create (developer) or download (end user) them” adds Kumar.
There are apps for real estate transactions, construction, building management, security, energy management, etc. “ The digital natives are already adopting and using these apps and the penetration and the usage will only increase even has JLL recently launched JLL IDEAs – India’s biggest real estate accelerate programme. Real estate is truly in the midst of a digital revolution and this is just the beginning “concludes Kumar.
