Housing.com goes brick and mortar

NEW DELHI: Real estate portal Housing.com, which has tried everything from selling land to renting out commercial spaces, will now focus only on brokerage.

NEW DELHI: Real estate portal Housing.com, which has tried everything from selling land to renting out commercial spaces, will now focus only on brokerage.

HT Image

“We are now focusing on just buying and selling residential property – that’s the biggest business in real estate, about 80% of all deals,” said Jason Kothari, Housing’s new CEO.

For now, Housing is just like an advertising platform – it connects people who want to buy flats and houses with owners, or brokers, who have listed properties on the platform. Competitors such as Magic Bricks and 99acres do the same.

“In the next 12-24 months, we will go offline,” said Kothari. He is looking at an army of Housing’ s own brokers – a business that is highly unorganised, mostly done by the neighbourhood broker.

The business is cash rich – a straight 2% commission on every deal, no questions asked.

Housing will also partner with brokers through a franchisee-led model with the leading brokers in each city Housing is present in.

“It’s not dissimilar from what Ola Cabs or Uber do – partnering with the best drivers. We will do that with the best brokers,” said Kothari.

Kothari claims that Housing’s new model is helping its revenue grow at 200% every month, but the base is small. It’s targeting revenue of $10 million (Rs 67 crore) by the end of this year.

It already has the largest selection of houses for resale, around 450,000 of them. “We have the best quality of homes… That’s unlike any of the others,” said Kothari.

Housing’s executives go and check each house before listing it. Now, its own brokers will help Housing sell them.