September - 2015 - Special issue > CXO Insights
Technology is All Set to Democratize Real Estate
By Saurabh Garg, Mentor & Angel Investor, NoBroker
"Housing is Issue 1 in the Oval Office, in the corner office, and at the kitchen table"� Spencer Rascoff, CEO, Zillow.
"Roti, Kapda aur Makaan" are the most basic and fundamental needs and amongst these three, the housing need stands apart, primarily because it demands the highest monetary investment. This is true for both buying and renting homes. Technology, Internet and mobile are changing the business dynamics across sectors. The real estate industry in India has undergone various changes and technology has been a critical enabler for the same.
If we go back in time, the discovery was a big issue. There were limited means like referrals that would enable real estate transactions. It was a slow and inefficient process, as a person would have to keep asking in the network for a credible referral source before any transaction could happen and unfortunately, Twitter and Facebook did not exist to spread the word. Thus, it made sense to have a source that can spread the word and the most natural and obvious source was the newspaper classifieds. People starting posting their ads and tenants and buyers would seek information from there. But, this was also a tedious and slow process as you would have to wait for weeks to get something that matches your criteria.
Discovery was made easier by the real estate agents as they became a source of information for multiple properties. They started adding value by enabling visits and most importantly, helping through the bureaucratic paperwork and ensuring that both the parties were genuine (or at least giving an assurance that both are genuine). But, this also meant an additional transaction cost of a middleman.
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