Naresh Malkani

When Indiaproperties.com was first launched, sceptics dismissed it as just another dot-com looking to cash in on a unique idea. The cynics had their reasons the Indian real estate industry was never known to be an organised industry and like the cable industry was thought to be largely controlled by the mafia. But despite the odds, Indiaproperties.com has managed to stay afloat and more importantly is looking forward to break-even by the end of this year. Revenues have also been increasing exponentially 170 percent for the last two years, and 200 percent expected this fiscal year.

The brainchild of Naresh Malkani, son of a Pune-based broker, Indiaproperties.com was started as a medium to act as a facilitator between the buyer and seller for the real estate broking community. The revenue model of the site is simple: list properties for sellers. But real estate being a highly disorganised industry, Indiaproperties realised that there was plenty of distrust in the broker community. The company saw an opportunity here and decided to launch services like associate brokers and affiliate brokers. The Indiaproperties tag gave the beleaguered builder and broker community a tag of respectability.

This revenue model has been highly successful and Indiaproperties.com today gets the bulk of revenues (53 percent) from affiliate brokers and builders. The listing service contributes a small but crucial 8 percent. Services like exhibitions are the next big thing, contributing about 16 percent, followed by services like corporate services, housing finance and education. Market analysts believe that this is the core strength of the company as it derives revenues from different activities and is not married to one particular idea.

Says Naresh Malkani, managing director, Indiaproperties.com, “Besides our deep knowledge and understanding of the Indian real estate space, our ability to adapt rapidly according to changing market dynamics and keeping costs in control has kept us in good stead. For example, we keep on adding value-added services like research and advisory, allied service providers and referral services to augment our revenues. In addition, we have never been dependent on online advertisement revenues, like most of our peers.”

Also, significant is the offline strategy. Malkani says that the nature of the real estate business being brick and mortar, offline services are very critical and important to the overall business strategy of the company. Offline services are also becoming more important simply because most Indians find it easy to simply phone a broker rather than get on the Net and send an e-mail to him. The synergy between the two mediums, offline and online is the most critical, and this is where Indiaproperties has managed to score over the others.

Explains Malkani, “Most information regarding our business like listing services, demands, enquiries and leads, including housing finance and project marketing, is obtained online and the requirements of real estate professionals is then executed offline through our network. We use different mediums like CallAssist centres to communicate with our offline real estate practitioners.” Today the company has its service offices in 18 cities across India.

Besides the domestic market, Indiaproperties is also looking at the NRI audience to boost revenues.

For example, post-September 11, there has been an increased demand from NRIs for properties in India. With RBI also easing regulations, NRIs are keen on investing in the Indian real estate market. Currently, around 30 percent of the registered user base of Indiaproperties is made up of NRIs. Post-9/11 there has also been an increase in the number of MNCs who are looking at India for their back end offices.