Assessing the Impact of Digital Technology on Real Estate Markets in India
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Assessing the Impact of
Digital Technology on
Real Estate Markets
in IndiaAssessing the Impact of Digital Technology
on Real Estate Markets in India
Overview Introduction
T he impact of digital technology (internet,
mobile phones and tablets) has greatly affected
I ndia property markets have traditionally been
unorganised and largely fragmented. However,
our lives. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India modern times have witnessed enhanced market
(TRAI) had announced that there were 164.81 consolidation on part of developers and real
million internet users in India as of March, 2013, estate organisations with structured processes
of whom 7/8th made use of handheld devices and sourced financing modules.
such as smartphones and tablets. Currently,
India holds the third position among nations It is in this context that the internet assumes larger
with the most number of internet users, after US importance in the scheme of things, particularly
and China. Therefore, it is quite palpable that for its role in shaping consumer behaviour.
digital technology would influence the third most A whopping 53% of consumers today are reliant
important sector that affects the economy. upon the internet for research and information
relating to real estate, while a significant 24%
This white paper makes use of a study conducted of this growing base of netizens prioritise the
by Google India on “Real Estate in India: The internet above all other mass media platforms
Digital Influence” to establish the pivotal role in this regard.It has also been observed that $43
that would be played by digital technology in billion worth of Indian realty transactions are
determining the course of real estate in India. The directly influenced by the internet as real estate
survey was conducted over 15 cities with 6196 assumes pride of place in average search listings
respondents spanning over residential renting, in the country.
residential buying and commercial renting to
determine answers to two main questions.
1. How far would the internet impact the growth of Residential real estate investment of
the real estate market? USD 31 billion is influenced by the
2. Understanding consumer behaviour in pre- internet while commercial real estate
purchase phase. is influenced by USD 12 billion
-
The following white paper acknowledges the Real estate market largely
growing presence of digital media in the real unorganised in Tier II
estate market and addresses issues of harnessing and Tier III cities
the true potential of digital technology.
01Organised real estate
market will double $140 Bn
by 2017
$79 Bn
2013 2017
Figure 1: Growth of organised realty market clusters
Information sources for
real estate research
Print
Web
Sales/Broker
Referrals
Television
Out-of-home ads
Figure 2: Internet as a major information source
The indexed query volume on Google suggests that real estate queries have gone
up by 3% and 1 out of 2 people look up the internet for gathering information.
Taking relevant findings into account, it is quite evident that the internet is here
to stay as far as mainstream real estate is concerned.
02research across Tier 1 & Tier 2
Online Research
Laptop/Desktop Computers Smartphones
91% 86% 55% 55%
Patterns of usage of various devices for accessing the internet Top Metro Small Metro Top Metro Small Metro
Because of the ever plummeting price of smartphones and other electronic gadgets, more individuals
can access the internet, irrespective of where they are. 40% of queries foracross
Devices used realageestate
groupsare carried out
by cell phones and their numbers are doubling every year. Cell phones are mostly used by enquirers
belonging to the age group of 25-35 and/or having an income more than `21 lakhs per annum.
Business owners with a turnover of more than `5 crores browse theLaptop/Desktop
internetComputers
for real estate news on
smartphones as well. The proportion of smartphone users for online research was the same in Tier
I and II cities. A whopping 73% of researchers using smartphones
90% 86%access real 88%estate information
89%
through apps that are made by property portals. The25-35
maximum
Years number
36-45 Years of app
46-60 users
Years belong
60+ Years to the
age bracket of 25 to 45 years. These apps offer consolidated information to users making use of the
information entered by them at the time of logging in. The apps are usually available for free and
work on both Google and iOS platforms. Smartphones
57% 54% 50% 26%
25-35 Years 36-45 Years 46-60 Years 60+ Years
Devices leveraged for Devices used based on annual
income buying & renting
real estate research
Devices used across for online
Laptop/Desktop Computers
research across Tier 1 & Tier 2
90% 88% 85%
Online Research
`5 lakhs < `5-21 lakhs `21 lakhs >
Laptop/Desktop Computers Smartphones
Smartphones
91% 86% 55% 55%
Top Metro Small Metro Top Metro Small Metro 37% 56% 69%
`5 lakhs < `5-21 lakhs `21 lakhs >
Devices used across age groups Devices used based on annual turnover (commercial)
Laptop/Desktop Computers Laptop/Desktop Computers
90% 85% 91%
90% 86% 88% 89% `25 lakhs < `25 lakhs- 5 cr `5 crores >
25-35 Years 36-45 Years 46-60 Years 60+ Years
Smartphones Smartphones
54% 67% 69%
57% 54% 50% 26%
`25 lakhs < `25 lakhs- 5 cr `5 crores >
25-35 Years 36-45 Years 46-60 Years 60+ Years
Survey Question: Which of the following devices do you use for online real estate?
Devices used based on annual
income buying & renting Source: Zinonov research
Figure 3: Popular devices for real estate research
Laptop/Desktop Computers
90% 88% 85%
03
`5 lakhs < `5-21 lakhs `21 lakhs >Those researching information regarding residential properties are 62% more likely to resort to
aggregator portals such as www.indiahomes.com. The plausible explanation would be that the
information about the projects, various cities and market trends are readily available on these sites
and enquirers prefer to have consolidated information at hand. Across various stages of property
buying and cities, more than 50% of enquirers have stated that they find aggregator portals more
engaging for residential and commercial real estate buying and selling because of the news stories,
expert comments and discussion forums available on them.
Residential buying Residential renting
Aggregator Websites (such as
59% 99acres.com, magicbricks.com,etc.)
Aggregator Websites (such as
60% 99acres.com, magicbricks.com,etc.)
Builder/Developer Website
52% /Project Microsites
55% Blogs/Review Forums
Brokers/Agent Websites (PropTiger,
47% SuperHomes,etc.)
51% Website of Brokers/Agents
33% Blogs / Review forums
44% Online Advertisements
Online Advertisements
29% Property and Related Videos
22% Property and related videos
Commercial renting
The finding is particularly significant for
commercial real estate because collecting
information about commercial properties
from unorganisWed sources is difficult. 70% Aggregator Websites (such as
99acres.com, magicbricks.com,etc.)
These sites often have a pop-up online chat
window that can be used for entering queries
which require specific answers. 47% Blogs/Review Forums
48% Website of Brokers/Agents
40% Online Advertisements
34% Property and Related Videos
Figures 4,5,6: Online portals that researchers
find most engaging
04Online Assets which researchers
find most engaging
Residential buying
Awareness & Evaluation
Top Metro Small Metro Research Stage Stage
62% Aggregator Websites 56% 55% Aggregator Websites 63%
54% Builder/Developer 49% 51% Builder/Developer 52%
Websites Websites
47% Brokers/Agent Websites 47% 45% Brokers/Agent Websites 48%
Blogs/Review Forums 37% 34% Blogs/Review Forums 32%
29%
37% Online Advertisements 24% 29% Online Advertisements 32%
19% 25% 22% Property and Related Videos 21%
Property and Related Videos
Online Assets which researchers
find most engaging
Residential renting
Awareness & Evaluation
Top Metro Small Metro Research Stage Stage
64% Builder/Developer 56% 56% Builder/Developer 64%
Websites Websites
50% Blogs/Review Forums 60% 59% Blogs/Review Forums 52%
56% Brokers/Agent Websites 45% 45% Brokers/Agent Websites 57%
48% Online Advertisements 40% 45% Online Advertisements 43%
30% Property and Related Videos 29% 28% Property and Related Videos 31%
Online Assets which researchers
find most engaging
Commercial renting
Awareness & Evaluation
Top Metro Small Metro Research Stage Stage
75% Builder/Developer 65% 67% Builder/Developers 74%
Websites Websites
53% Brokers/Agent Websites 42% 45% Brokers/Agent Websites 50%
46% Blogs/Review Forums 47% 50% Blogs/Review Forums 43%
48% Online Advertisements 30% 38% Online Advertisements 41%
32% Property and Related Videos 37% 33% Property and Related Videos 35%
Figures 7,8,9: Online assets that engage researchers
city-wise and awareness-wise
05Key research on property portals for real estate
Most home seekers and prospective renters of commercial properties look up property portals for
understanding prevailing market trends and gathering information regarding the properties available
for possession or investment. The findings reveal that ease of access to property information and
availability of comparison mechanisms are what draw enquirers to aggregator sites.
Residential buying Residential renting
Easy access to market trends and Easy access to market trends and
in-depth property information 60% in-depth property information
Large variety of options/ease of Large variety of options/ease of
comparisons 55% comparisons
Easy access to contact details 52% Easy access to contact details
Easy access to financing and Easy access to financing and
document processing information 43% document processing information
Access to reviews and blogs 32% Access to reviews and blogs
Option to book property online 16% Option to book property online
Commercial renting
Easy access to market trends and
More than 55% have corroborated the former 57% in-depth property information
reason for logging on to property portals and
above 50% have commented that they log in 49%
Large variety of options/ease of
comparisons
for the latter reason.
49% Easy access to contact details
Easy access to financing and
46% document processing information
28% Access to reviews and blogs
21% Option to book property online
Figures 10,11,12: Key reasons for
researching real estate online
06Key reasons for online real estate research
Residential buying
Awareness & Evaluation
Top Metro Small Metro Research Stage Stage
Easy access to 58% Easy access to 65%
65% 58% market trends
market trends
59% Large variety of 44% 53% Large variety of 50%
options options
Easy access to 48% Easy access to 49%
51% 45% contact details
contact details
Easy access to Easy access to 43%
39% 43% 39%
financial information financial information
31% Access to review 30% 33% Access to review 28%
and blogs and blogs
Options to book Options to book 18%
16% 20% 18% property online
property online
Key reasons for online real estate research
Residential renting
Awareness & Evaluation
Top Metro Small Metro Research Stage Stage
Easy access to 58% Easy access to 63%
60% 61% market trends
market trends
60% Large variety of 49% 52% Large variety of 58%
options options
Easy access to 50% Easy access to 53%
52% 52% contact details
contact details
Easy access to Easy access to 39%
39% 46% 46%
financial information financial information
32% Access to review 33% 36% Access to review 29%
and blogs and blogs
Options to book Options to book 18%
18% 15% 15% property online
property online
Key reasons for online real estate research
Commercial renting
Awareness & Evaluation
Top Metro Small Metro Research Stage Stage
Easy access to 53% Easy access to 60%
62% 51% market trends
market trends
53% Large variety of 44% 52% Large variety of 45%
options options
Easy access to 45% Easy access to 48%
46% 42% contact details
contact details
Easy access to Easy access to 46%
49% 50% 53%
financial information financial information
27% Access to review 35% 32% Access to review 25%
and blogs and blogs
Options to book Options to book 21%
23% 18% 20% property online
property online
Figures 13,14,15: Key reasons for real estate
research online city and awareness wise
07Challenges posed to online real estate research
Despite the reach of internet expanding, there are several roadblocks that users and enquirers face
while surfing the internet for real estate. The inherent nature of the internet where information can
be made public without verification and the openness of allowing all and sundry to upload has often
been a hurdle to user experience. The common issues faced by users have been discussed in the
subsequent sections.
Key challenges faced by users while
researching online
Residential buying
Awareness & Evaluation
Top Metro Small Metro Research Stage Stage
Unavailibility of 58% Unavailibility of 59%
59% 59% owner contacts
owner contacts
56% Incorrect or 47% 51% Incorrect or 53%
outdated information outdated information
43% Difficulty identifying 50% 44% Difficulty identifying 49%
relevent websites relevent websites
Unavailibility of 34% unavailibility of 37%
40% 37%
information information
35% Leakage of 30% 35% Leakage of 30%
personal information personal information
Difficult navigating 13% Difficult navigating 16%
16% through information 13% through information
Key challenges faced by users while
researching online
Residential buying
Awareness & Evaluation
Top Metro Small Metro Research Stage Stage
Unavailibility of 50% Unavailibility of 52%
56% 46% owner contacts
owner contacts
Leakage of Leakage of
42% 57% 50% 49%
personal information personal information
43% Difficulty identifying 43% 43% Difficulty identifying 43%
relevent websites relevent websites
Unavailibility of 41% Unavailibility of 41%
43% 43%
information information
Incorrect or Incorrect or
50% 30% 39% 42%
outdated information outdated information
Difficult navigating 31% Difficult navigating 30%
27% through information 27% through information
08Key challenges faced by users while
Commercial renting researching online
Awareness & Evaluation
Top Metro Small Metro Research Stage Stage
Unavailibility of 32% Unavailibility of 36%
41% information
38% information
Unavailibility of 34% Unavailibility of 39%
40% 33%
owner contacts owner contacts
Leakage of Leakage of
31% 40% 42% 29%
personal information personal Information
37% Low availibility of 27% Low availibility of 35%
25%
commercial rental posts commercial rental posts
34% Incorrect or 21% 27% Incorrect or 28%
outdated information outdated information
Lack of human or 26% Lack of human or 26%
30% 30% personal contact
personal contact
28% Difficulty identifying 31% 29% Difficulty identifying 30%
relevent websites relevent websites
Difficult navigating 21% Difficult navigating 23%
22% through information 20% through information
Figures 16,17,18: Biggest challenges faced by users
on property portals
Unavailability of genuine contact information
A lot of property owners do not want to give out contact information believing it would jeopardise
their security. This often poses as a problem to users who want to directly get in touch with the
property owner for more information or striking a deal. More than 50% of respondents have come to
a consensus that this is the biggest issue with online property research.
Because the internet is an open platform, imposters and miscreants often hide behind the facade of
being property dealers or sellers and dupe unsuspecting property buyers or renters. Unless stringent
measures are adopted for protecting buyers from such imposters, less people will be inclined to
purchase or rent property via the internet.
Incorrect or outdated information
The information available on various kinds of property portals is often not updated. Those putting up
advertisements often do not take off their posts from the list displayed even after the property has
been sold or sublet. Many a time users do not update information about the property that they have
listed - the stage of completion, price, changes in specifications etc. Prior to making the listing live,
lack of scrutiny has been observed in several cases. These issues often make it difficult for a user
to gather information from the internet.Only online broker sites have been seen to offer somewhat
satisfactory information and services to users, although it is far from perfect.
09Metros Small Metros
64%
57% 54% 55%
53%
42%
Residential Buying Residential Renting Commercial Renting
Road ahead for aggregator and developer sites
Aggregators and developer sites should concentrate on improving the content available on their
sites by verifying their authenticity and relevance regularly.
Internet as The
TOP 3target audience for realty sites is
By Age
already available which is why the scope for integration has widened dramatically. 89% of the target
audience (those households with income above across various stages of property buying and cities 25-35 years 36-45 years 46-60 years 60+ years
`5 lakhs) of property portals are on the internet and one out of four internet users prefer78% researching
real estate online. The next milestone to reach for aggregator and developer sites has been laid - to
net the remaining three property enquirers who make 55% use of print media 61%
and offline brokers.
50% 49% 49%
42% 42% 43%
20% 20%
Residential Buying Residential Renting Commercial Renting
Use of internet in
real estate research Internet as TOP 3
By Property Value
Less than `50 Lakhs Less than More than Less than More than
`25 Lakhs to 1 Crore `10,000 `25,000 `50,000 `250,000
Internet as TOP 3 `25 Lakhs
to 50 lakhs
More than
`1 Crore
`10,000
to 25,000
`50,000
to 250,000
By Type of City
72%
65%
Metros Small Metros 62%
59%
56%
64% 52% 52%
57% 49% 49%
54% 55% 45%
53%
42%
Residential Buying Residential Renting Commercial Renting
Residential Buying Residential Renting Commercial Renting
Internet as TOP 3 Internet as TOP 3
By Age By Gender
25-35 years 36-45 years 46-60 years 60+ years
Female Male
78%
59% 59%
61%
55% 52%
49% 49% 50% 49% 51% 50%
42% 42% 43%
20% 20%
Residential Buying Residential Renting Commercial Renting Residential Buying Residential Renting Commercial Renting
Source: Zinonov research
Internet as TOP 3
By Property Value
Figure 19: Usage of internet in realty research
Less than `50 Lakhs Less than More than Less than More than
`25 Lakhs to 1 Crore `10,000 `25,000 `50,000 `250,000
`25 Lakhs More than `10,000 `50,000
to 50 lakhs `1 Crore to 25,000 to 250,000
72%
65%
62%
59%
10 49%
56%
52% 49%
52%
45%Rather than concentrate on Tier I cities alone, sites should concentrate on Tier II cities more as they
have shown a tremendously potent user pool. In the past 3 years, cities such as Ahmedabad, Surat,
Kanpur, Nagpur, Coimbatore, Chandigarh, Indore, Jaipur, Lucknow and Pune have exhibited growth
in query search by almost 350%. 48% buyers in Tier II cities are influenced by the internet when
coming to a purchasing decision while 57% from Tier I cities are influenced by the internet.
Buyers seeking properties which are valued between `50 lakhs and `1 crore use the internet
extensively for moulding their purchasing decision.
Apart from uploading enriching and insightful content, property portals should strive to better
the user experience by including more services and features. The focus of property portals must
be on mobile applications and services because they derive significant user base through it.
Resale properties must be highlighted too as 50% buyers are indifferent between them and newly
constructed properties as long as the location and price bracket are satisfied.
To conclude, the future of property portals is encouraging upon the condition that the challenges
posed are overcome and target groups are rearranged for maximum conversion.
S aurabh is a seasoned marketing professional
with more than 12 years of experience across
industries & continents including Fortune 500
companies. He avidly believes that the biggest
learning happens only when you do-it-yourself
(DIY).
He has an MBA from Purdue University, USA and
is an astute visionary with great leadership skills.
He believes that those working along are not the
great workforce but are great people with great
capabilities & potential.
He has led small to big teams of great achievers
at USAA (San Antonio), A.G. Edwards (now Wells
Fargo Advisors), Magellan Health Services,
Purdue University, The Times of India, Mahuaa
Media, Impetus Media (Google Business View
Vendor) and currently heads the content,
community, campaigns and communications
Saurabh Agrawal team at IndiaHomes (India’s 1st FDI funded
Property Advisory Company).
Head – Communications Content & He has also been to various management
Communities IndiaHomes institutes as a guest faculty and as a mentor to
TIE & DBS workshops for start-up entrepreneurs.
Contact the author: Saurabh recently started writing articles for
saurabh.agarwal@indiahomes.com LinkedIn Pulse on various business aspects with
Source : Google Research focus on Digital Marketing and Disruption.
11IndiaHomes
India World Technologies Pvt. Ltd.,
Global Business Park, Tower D, 9th Floor
Gurgaon, Haryana-122002
Phone: 1800-1022-224
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