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About Housing.com
Housing.com is a Mumbai based popular real estate search portal that allows prospective customers to look for housing property based on filters like geography, number of rooms etc. This real estate portal was formed by 12 graduates from IIT Bombay. Currently it has 2500 employees and presence in more than 50 cities.
It is one of the fastest growing online search portal in the real estate sector. Upset an unhappy with unending online visits and forged listing this team of 12 talented youngsters created a search system which is much above similar portals like magic bricks and 99 acres.com and have been hailed as trendsetters in just two years.
Vision statement of Housing.com states ‘At Housing, we have initiated change — change for the best. Our vision is to help the world live better. We are on a journey to simplifying everything, so that you can focus on your loved ones and things that matter the most. We are here to get to the root of every challenge, find a solution and deliver to you a world that’s filled to the brim with optimism, innovation, transparency, and advancement. Live better with Housing’.
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Business objectives of Housing.com
The objective of the company is to become number one in the real estate search portal space. Its long term dream is to become like an e-commerce company where the customers will be able to buy properties similar to the ease with which they buy products from e-commerce sites. It also want to bring down the pain points in home buying and selling through ensuring listing of homes for buying, selling and rentals.
Housing.com’s mission states ‘Our mission is Innovation and Optimism for Housing. As India leapfrogs its way to become one of the fastest growing economies on earth, Housing, spearheaded by an ocean of highly ambitious individuals, is at the forefront, changing the way the real estate industry will be experienced in the future across the planet’.
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Approach / Strategy adopted by Housing.com
Housing.com encourages brokers or owners to list the properties and they plot the same on an interactive map in their online portal. Customers can filter the search results based on parameters like available rooms, lifestyle ratings, child friendliness index (CFI), and area-based pricing etc.
Housing.com’s Data Science Lab (DSL) has generated a number of “Heat Map” algorithms and demand flux maps based on these filters. The CFI heat map shows child friendliness of different areas and it measures neighborhoods on three different criteria which are 1. Number of schools 2.Number of hospitals and parks 3. Proximity of these facilities to the area. The algorithms also gives price variations in properties across the city.
The working of Housing.com is very simple. You can start your search by using different filters based on your requirement and the once you are through, then you can call up the broker or submit the form then brokers or sellers directly will reach out to you. While most of the online portals promises to get rid of middle man or brokers Housing.com has been very plain in saying that brokers will continue to play a significant role in the process chain and the value for money for the customer would be on the accurate information obtained from the portal on house buying or selling.
Housing.com evaluates the popularity of the portal based on the total number of hits and queries for each flat. They look at the number of leads generated per listed property and not the conversion as they believe that conversion depends on factors like expertise, knowledge and negotiation skills of the broker. Regarding monetization Housing.com charges a fixed amount from brokers as subscription charges and for the owners of the property as of now the listing is free. They may start charging a minuscule amount later on.
A key factor for the company’s growth can be identified as innovation. Example is their new product Brand Falcon aimed at giving developers a powerful medium to communicate their brand story to consumers. This will help developers to create a digital identity for the parent developer brand as well as for standalone projects. This will help developers to create a digital identity for the parent developer brand as well as for standalone projects. Another example is housing.com signed an agreement with the realtors’ apex body CREDAI to set up an online platform that would help developers to engage with customers effectively. The objective is to improve the overall ecosystem and create a new age platform that will enable the developers to engage with the consumers.
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Results achieved by Housing.com
Housing.com has tied up with more than 6000 brokers and operated in more than 40 cities in India including Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata and Delhi. The company has mapped approximately 650,000 houses in India.
The company has mapped over 80,000 houses in Mumbai and 50,000 houses in Bangalore which constitutes over 5% of the total houses in both cities. They are also using drones to collect this data which includes aerial surveys and photographs. Their innovative way of doing business has helped them in raising fund from a series of investors like Nexus Venture, angel funding, Soft bank etc.
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Key Learning from Housing.com
Major reason for their success are the innovations they brought in their portal like lifestyle ratings, child friendliness index (CFI), and area-based pricing etc.
Housing.com solve problems differently. They combine knowledge, passion and technology to drive innovation and set new benchmarks for excellence. They have their 10x mantra which helps them to OUT SEE, OUT THINK and OUT DO.
Image Credits: Housing.com
