Real Estate Portals Turn Spoilsport for Brokers

"All large developers who are members of CREDAI (real estate apex body) have their own marketing team or are in the process of developing their own sales team for better customer service and building direct relationship with customers," said Harsh Vardhan Patodia, president, CREDAI Bengal and vice-president CREDAI National.

"Builders are now luring new buyers through their present clientele, eliminating the role of agents and brokers," said Jyoti Shroff, partner at Bangalore-based real estate consultancy Tirupati Associates. She further cited "A reference of a prospective client gets the buyer up to 50,000 discount. This has led to fall in our business by about 50 percent, especially in the last six months."

For instance, "At the BRA-I AGM in August, members talked at large about the competition from various sources like internet portals that are posing stiff competition to the traditional brokers," said Rahul Pai, governing body member of Bangalore Realtors Association-India (BRA-I).

"This, added to the unfavorable market conditions in real estate, has made it worse for brokers. In fact, several small-time brokers have actually gone out of business and are coming to us looking for jobs." However, this gloomy market condition is pretty much evident in metros like Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Bangalore.  

Moreover, "Certain developers are at the moment more bullish on the online sites and social media to promote their properties among NRIs and strengthening their direct sales," added Gupta.

Read More: Economy In A Mess; Boon Or Bane For Home Buyers?