The 10 Most Admired Real Estate Consultants

™ www.insightssuccess.in JUNE 2018

Real Estate Consultant of The Year

The

10 Avtar Singh, Director Abbey Homes Consultants Pvt Ltd.

Finance Concern

Most Admired

Real Estate Consultants

The Real Estate Financing Trends in India

CXO Standpoint Smart City Mission – Tier 2 and Tier 3 Cities Take the Lead

Ankit Kansal Co- founder & Managing Director

360 Realtors India’s Largest Real Estate Advisory in Primary Real Estate Market

Editorial

W

hichever way one looks at it, change is happening right here, right now and the role of technology will only increase as the sector matures. The only way forward is to embrace the inescapable restructuring or risk being left behind by the competition. The conversation between the real estate experts have led numerous organizations to explore the impact of technology, construction designs and developments, big data, IoT and artificial intelligence. Through this, the real estate sectors are able to provide the insights of latest trends and successive techniques of technological digital investments. This has also helped the organizations to create a seamless experience for consumers by reducing the expenses while increasing the efficiency in the today’s market. As people are relying on technology to meet their everyday demands, the real estate sectors are adapting and embracing technologies to pave a way towards the advancement of the industry.

The Rise and Growth of the Technology in Real Estate Industry

In addition, the organizations functioning in the real estate sectors is developing tech-driven applications, systems and processes which is reshaping the real estate industry’s operation. In this emerging ecosystem, the entrepreneurs and innovators are seeking to introduce new technologies to digitize the offline business norms that were established a long time ago.

Further, the experts are developing tech enabled service solutions that were previously unavailable and are creating tools that can maximize the operational efficiency. Accordingly, the intense real estate tech ecosystem is composed of diverse companies that are developing solutions. This can impact the broad array of experts including brokers, investors, real estatefocused lender & mortgage providers, property owners, managers and even the buyers.

As the entrepreneurs have continued to attract the clients by unfolding the tale of various opportunities offered within the real estate through transparency, the real estate tech ecosystem has grown in both size and scope. According to the data released by the independent researchers, the private equity investments in real estate are estimated to grow to 100 billion US dollars by 2026 with tier 1 and 2 cities being the prime beneficiaries.

Besides, from the January-March 2018 report, the private equity investments in Indian real estate are identified to increase by 15 per cent year-on-year which is estimated to be 2.56 billion US dollars.

Additionally, the evolving real estate industry is empowering the entrepreneurs to invest in tools that might add value to the quality of their everyday life. In other words, the implementation of real estate technologies would allow customers to have better experiences of online video tours, smart homes and package delivery systems. It would also reduce the unnecessary tasks for agents and help them to increase the productivity of sales for construction companies via mobile applications, 3D printing, and virtual reality. This may also end-up in creating a strong foundation for successful development in communities.

Bhavithiran Murugan

Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Senior Editor Shraddha Deshpande Managing Editor Rajarshi Chatterjee Executive Editor Bhavithiran Murugan Contributors Rahul Niraj, Aishwarya Nawandhar, Anmol Preet Singh Art & Design Director Amol Kamble Co-designer Shweta Shinde Picture Editor Alex Noel Art Editor Vanshika Mittal Visualiser Asha Bhange Business Development Manager Akansha Garewal Marketing Manager Dhruv Apte Business Development Executives Divya Shah, Vaishnavi Salunke, Sarika Kawade Research Analyst David Circulation Manager Vivek Bangade Database Management Prashant Chevale Technology Consultant Swapnil Patil sales@insightssuccess.com

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Cover Story

360 Realtors: India's Largest Real Estate Advisory in Primary Real Estate Market

08 16 Real Estate Consultant of The Year

Abbey Homes: Insinuating the Real Estate Domestic Arena with Best in Class Customer Service

24

Intreview

RE/MAX India: A Leader of Innovation and Sustainability in the Real Estate Sector

32

SareStates Realty: A Proď€ cient Advisor of the Indian Real Estate and Financial Services Sector

28

Finance Concern The Real Estate Financing Trends in India

CO NT EN TS

38

CXO Standpoint Smart City Mission – Tier 2 and Tier 3 Cities Take the Lead

Articles 36 A Think Piece Secrets of Being a Successful New-Age Real Estate Agent

42 Tech Talk

20 In4velocity Systems An Innovative Networking Software Solution Provider

Transforming ‘Real’ Estate with ‘Virtual’ Space and Changing Technology

22 WatchTower The Evolving Roles of Brokers in Real Estate as Consultants

The Impact of Real Estate Sectors in India

T

he development of real estate industry in India is accredited to the offshoring and outsourcing businesses, such as high-end technology consultation, call centers and programming houses. Presently, the impact of recession in US economy has caused huge impact on Indian real estate market as well. Consequently, the demand for IT space and commercial spaces has grown up. Additionally, the high net worth of individual investors has created a very fast pace of demand in Indian real estate sector, which has a very high impact image of investing in India.

To highlight these extraordinary real estate entities, we have represented some of the emerging real estate consultants with the special edition on “The 10 Most Admired Real Estate Consultants” who have been credited for bringing in transparency and client centric practices to the Indian real estate canvas. Apart from the real estate transactional and home loan disbursal services, they also offer numerous value added services such as FSI consulting, legal advisory, vaastu advisory, and portfolio management. These organizations are creating rewarding opportunities and amazing spaces where people can achieve their ambitions.

On the Cover, we have 360 Realtors, the largest transactional player in Indian primary residential sales. Till date it has sold over 10,000 individual units, and its accomplishments are yet to be matched in the organized primary residential space. The organization has been bridging the gap by offering unbiased advisory and handholding the client through every step in order to ensure a hassle free and memorable home buying experience.

Apart from this, we have encompassed Abbey Homes Consultants (Real Estate Consultant of the Year) which is a pioneer amongst professional real estate consulting companies in Chandigarh, India and the fastest growing company of the region With more than five years of collective experience in this industry, their expertise is providing the best in class customer service through world class technology, process and response mechanisms.

We have also listed; In4velocity Systems, a leading provider of Real Estate and Construction Software. Its award winning ERP software – In4Suite® is used daily by over 40,000+ users to manage complex construction activities and customer related sales transactions.

We have enclosed ‘Interview with Insights Success’ with SareStates Realty Advisors, an organization which is driven by extensively experienced professionals who are extremely passionate about Real Estate and have a very strong belief in their customer centric approach. And RE/MAX India, one of the promising real estate solution partner with the best personal one-on-one service and state of the art real estate technology.

We have also covered various articles contributed by industry experts as, Smart City Mission – Tier 2 and Tier 3 Cities Take the Lead by Santhosh Kumar and The Real Estate Financing Trends in India by Rajat Mohan Pathak.

Our in-house editors have also written masterly-crafted articles on ‘Secrets of Being a Successful New-Age Real Estate Agent’, ‘The Evolving Roles of Brokers in Real Estate as Consultants’ and Transforming ‘Real’ Estate with ‘Virtual’ Space and Changing Technology.

So, let’s start flipping through the pages of the magazine and experience something out-of-the-box.

360 Realtors: India’s Largest Real Estate Advisory in Primary Real Estate Market

“Every buying experience should be a simple and successful accomplishment from a DREAM to REALITY”

COVER STORY

Ankit Kansal

Co- founder & Managing Director

360 Realtors envisions succeeding on the principles

of commitment,

honesty, and

reliability” O

verall the market sentiments in the country, both domestic and international institutional investors are holding aggressive position on India realty. In 2018, investment into Indian housing industry has crossed over INR 17,000 crores and growing to 15% over the years.

This further reinforces the confidence on the long term potential of the sector. As there is a potential bounce back associated with Indian realty, more investors are piling into the sector.

Despite the short term pain induced due to RERA and demonetization, the market is poised for the long term gains due to the policy overhaul. RERA and demonetization have been emboldened steps towards bringing in more structure, organization, and transparency in the market. This is playing a crucial role towards restoring confidence on the market. Many buyers, who have been sitting on the fences, have now started pivoting back to the realty world.

Founded in 2014, 360 Realtors is the largest transactional player in Indian primary residential sales. Till date it has sold over 10,000 individual units, and its accomplishments

are yet to be matched in the organized primary residential space. The organization has been bridging the gap by offering unbiased advisory and handholding the client through every step in order to ensure a hassle free and memorable home buying experience.

In a nutshell, 360 Realtors is the pioneer in the professional real estate consulting space, and are greatly credited for bringing in transparency and client centric practices to the Indian real estate canvas. Apart from its real estate transactional and home loan disbursal services, it also offer numerous value added services such as FSI Consulting, Legal Advisory, Vaastu Advisory, and Portfolio Management. Apart from its relentless drive and unrivalled dominance, 360 Realtors is also known for its stellar reputation in Ethics, Honesty, and Reliability. It boasts the lowest cancellation rates in the industry. Around 30-35% of its new clients are generally referred from its previous ones that further testify the strong positioning they hold amongst its client base.

A SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR OF 360 REALTORS An experienced entrepreneur with a demonstrated history of running successful businesses in varied segments, Ankit Kansal is the Co- founder and Managing Director at 360 Realtors. Kansal has owned and managed numerous businesses pertaining to international trade, turnkey interior design solutions, and export. Initially Kansal was not directly involved into the real estate business but was a strategic investor. The experience helped him to understand the existing gap in the intermediary real estate transaction space as well as the tremendous underlying potential in the primary residential space.

Later in 2014, Kansal started 360 Realtors as an Online to Offline (O2O) model that was the next evolution in property search and buying business. The tech enabled digitized curated marketplace experience was augmented with the help of a powerful ground sales force and property consultants to help buyers assist throughout the home ownership cycle. With 360 realtors, Kansal ideated and actualized the concept of professional real estate consulting that highlighted the importance of customer convenience in Indian realty.

ACHIEVEMENTS AND AWARDS 360 Realtors high increase in digits has been a testimony to the exponential growth curves that have traversed in the recent years. It has spread its presence in almost forty cities across nine countries with their sales force of over 750. In order to tap into the lucrative NRI market, it has been

relentlessly driving into various international markets such as UAE, Qatar, KSA, Singapore, and much more. Currently the company works with 350+ developers nationwide.

Having done more than 10,000+ transactions since inception, it serves a huge family of happy customers and 1000+ employees. In FY 2017-2018, 360 Realtors have crossed the sales of over INR 2,500 Crores.

360 Realtors have achieved 312 % YOY growth in 2017-2018. Testimony to its success is also the fact that the company have been conferred with over 40 real estate awards and industry awards which includes, ‘The Realty India Award’ in May 2017, ‘Brand Impact Award’ in March 2016, and the ‘Real Estate Consultant’ of the year in 2015.

OVERCOMING THE HURDLES

BY FOLLOWING THE STEEP GROWTH CURVES Due to the unorganized nature of the real estate, it has faced anticipating challenges since the beginning. It also encountered multiple challenges pertaining to human capital acquisition, sourcing the right deal, implementing an effective ERP module, and much more. However, 360 Realtors knew that obstacles would be the foreground to build its ecosystem, business values, and generate opportunities for sustainable growth.

Following the steep growth curves, it required quality human capital at an unprecedented pace. To manage the same, it has kept no stone unturned in developing an organizational culture that was backed by merit driven growth, transparency, and state of the art training facilities. It also encouraged higher studies and certifications for its workforce, a practice nearly unheard in the realty space. Consequently, today 360

Realtors is boasted as one of the lowest attrition rates in industry.

At the technology front when it started off to get an integrated ERP, that can incorporate sales, marketing, operations, and CRM functions. To overcome this, it has created the solution in house.

CUTTING EDGE REAL ESTATE CONSULTING SERVICES Although real estate advisory is a highly competitive space, it is fragmented as the market has been mostly dominated by small and unprofessional brokers. As an organized entity it is bringing the concept of professional real estate consulting in practice. The cornerstone offerings involve the cutting edge technologies and exhaustive analytics to help buyers identify the right properties as per their requirements.

360 Realtors technology nucleus is augmented with the massive on ground sales force and a prolific CRM team.

Its sales force help individual clients with site visits, property evaluation, mapping of requirements, zero down on the final property, and negotiation etc. Likewise, CRM team helps in offering transactional and post purchase sales to offer a hassle free experience to the client.

Developer Due Diligence: It is very cognizant of the developers that it partner with. It has a stringent selection process in place which it keeps reviewing from time to time. It also works with the reputed developers, who are customer centric, known for timely delivery, and keeps its promise of quality delivery.

Likewise, it partner for saleable projects that have strong underlying demand due to location, developer's credibility, payment plan or combination of all.

Unbiased data driven consultation: Unbiased insights and data driven advisory is the cornerstone of 360 Realtors consulting process. To enable its clients to take the right decision, it captures innumerable data points including developer’s credibility, developer’s track record, location analysis, supply-demand dynamics, capital appreciation projection, rental returns, amenity check, infrastructure potential, and much more. Through the use of powerful algorithms along with the attractive and user friendly interface, it enables users to retrieve projects that best fit in to their requirements.

On ground sales team: 360 Realtors powerful ground presence compliments its technological expertise and brings in the required human touch that is essential for high involvement investment such as real estate. With every individual client a dedicated relationship manager & sales force is assigned that can help with the property search, identification, and final selection. The process requires iterations of brainstorming, client requirement mapping, and site visits to eventually zero down to the best-fit

“360 Realtors leave no stone

unturned to

win your

faith and trust ”

property. A dedicated support in the form of a relationship managers, that are seasoned real experts streamlines and smoothens the overall sales process and offers a convenient experience to the buyers.

360 degree transactional support through tech enabled CRM: Global Response Centre (GRC) leverages some of the most cutting edge technologies, which are used to effectively map a client’s experience with them from first interaction.

Every interaction with a client is mapped to ensure timely engagement with respective departmental representatives like pre-sales, customer support, site/developer representative, etc. This is crucial in nurturing trust between them and the home buyers, and can blossom into lifelong association.

ADVISING THE YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS Ankit mentions “Firstly, as a young entrepreneur, a person should have clarity in terms of what exactly he is trying to solve. In the entire ecosystem of his proposed industry, as a person he should also know how and where does he fit in, along with what exact value addition he is going to introduce.”

You might not have to prove a long term strategy, as long as you consistently do the small things correctly

Secondly, Ankit suggests his budding entrepreneurs to take special focus on building the right business practices and value system. And to give additional weight to integrity, ethics, and client focus. According to him, a strong customer centric approach needs to be ingrained into the entire operational cycle. There will be hiccups and uncertainties, but Ankit advises to embrace them with advantage which can go a long way in cementing their unique positioning and help them stand apart from their peers.

UNFOLDING THE FUTURE OF 360 REALTORS In an evolving industry dynamics, 360 Realtors will continue to consolidate its leadership role as a front runner in embracing latest technologies, innovations, marketing strategies, and business practices. It will set a benchmark for higher integrity and honesty in individual deals, be it with developers or end users.

360 Realtors solid fundamentals and stronghold in business will also help them to become a thought leader in the industry. So far the industry lacks a credible thought leader who can talk on behalf of numerous stakeholders involveddevelopers, contractors, end users, intermediaries etc. It also wishes to bridge the existing void and play a constructive role towards the welfare and progress of the entire industry.

Company Name

Management

Brief

360 Realtors 360realtors.com

Ankit Kansal Co-founder & Managing Director

360 Realtors is a company which provides 360-degree solution to all realty investments.

9 PILLARS 9pillars.co.in

Ujjwal Vishal Director

9 PILLARS are one of the oldest and leading property consultants specializing in Asset management, Financial Services and Consultancy.

Abbey Homes abbeyhomes.in

Avtar Singh Director

Abbey Homes a pioneer amongst professional real estate consulting companies in India has served premier corporate house in domestic arena.

Home Raaga homeraaga.com

Amber Agarwal / Vidhu Goyal Co-founder

Home Raaga offers Premium Real Estate solutions across Sales, Rentals, property Management and Expat Housing with increased accountability, transparency and professionalism.

In4velocity in4velocity.com

Rahul Chawla Founder & CEO

In4velocity is a leading provider of Real Estate and Infrastructure Software.

N.K. Realtors (P) Ltd nkrealtors.com

Arnab Das Deputy Manager

NK Realtors is one of the largest vertically integrated real estate services in India that provides complete property solutions.

Ruchi Realty Holdings ruchirealty.com

Shivam Asthana President

Ruchi Realty Holdings Limited is a part of Ruchi Group of Industries, one of the largest business houses in India.

Square Yards squareyards.com

Tanuj Shori CEO, Kanika Gupta Shori COO

Square Yards is Number one PAN India real estate investment advisory offering a comprehensive, integrated menu of property & asset portfolio from Grade A developers across the globe.

Talreja Advisory & Consultancy Services tacsindia.in

Mahesh Talreja Founder

Talreja Advisory & Consultancy Services (TACS) is one of the prominent proprietorship firms that have dealt with around 400 SRA, Redevelopment and Real Estate Development Projects.

Vestian vestianglobal.com

Shrinivas Rao CEO

Vestian is an occupier-focused workplace solutions firm specializing in commercial, residential, industrial, retail and hospitality sectors.

Real Estate Consultant of The Year

ABBEY

H MES Insinuating e Real Estate Domestic Arena wi Best in Class Customer Service pioneer amongst professional real estate consulting companies in Chandigarh, India and the fastest growing Company of the region is Abbey Homes Consultants. With more than five years of collective experience in this industry, their expertise is providing the best in class customer service through world class technology, process and response mechanisms.

A

Abbey Homes provides up-to-theminute updates from property value appreciation to new property launches.

Customers are readily provided with relevant information, best options, enticing deals, practical solutions, as well as expert service professionals to deal with their loan requirements and Vastu experts to answer their property related apprehensions. By focusing on the performance and delivery, since the past five years it has satisfied more than two-thousand happy families for their need and the count is still going on.

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The Driving Force of Abbey Homes Avtar Singh is the Director at Abbey Homes Consultants, who is having a wide corporate experience of over fourteen years in banking, insurance and real estate. In 2004, Avtar started his career with Leading Bank from Delhi. With his unbeatable knowledge in the business, marketing and the customer relationship management, he has won recognition for his exemplary contribution to leadership processes and institution systems building in banking and insurance. On January 14, 2012, Avtar entered into the real estate arena and founded the Abbey Homes Consultants which came into existence and the business hit the bull’s eye.

Awards and Achievements On the basis of overall performance and in terms of number of sales, visits, client relation, builder relation, pre and post sales service to client and builder etc. Abbey Homes has received numerous awards which includes Extra |JUNE 2018|

“Be strict to your commitment and built your trust”

Avtar Singh DIRECTOR

|JUNE 2018|

17

Ordinary Performance 2015, Awarded for Relationship Builder 2016, Magnificent Star Achiever 2017, Award of Honor- Consistent Contribution towards Growth 2017, Sales Achievement Award 2017, Star Performer of the year 2017, Rising Star of the year 2017, Achievers Award –Outstanding Sales Performance 2017.

Overcoming Obstacles with WellPlanned Strategies Establishing a set up in a growing industry and in the marketplace like Zirakpur, Chandigarh was the difficulties faced by the company at the inception. But with the help of enormous experience and knowledge of directors, it was able to fix its roots.

Further, with good planning, mechanism and support of best professional staffs, it hit up the target.

Today, they have established this firm with well experienced and professional working people and management. Due to good planning and strategies that has been built up from time -to -time and according to the scenario and situations, the company has overcome each and every obstacle by giving a tough challenge to their competitors.

Best Deal Guaranteed Pre- Post Sale Services for Customer’s Satisfaction Abbey Homes offer the customers with more options to choose the best for their desire and reducing their time by providing site visit service and on site presentation. It also provides end -to end loan services on the door step along with documentation formalities in less time in order to make sure that the customer’s trust is fulfilled in all aspect.

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Pre- sale services From the bunch of more than twohundred projects, it offers the best suitable one to the client, fitting in dream depending upon the customer’s requirements on budget, location, amenities, Vastu and dimensions. It provides services in Residential and Commercial property, Flats, Plots, Villas, Office space, Retail, Studio etc.

Through their professionals design portfolio for investments and wealth creation, it has built a strong relation between builder, buyers and investors.

It assures the best price deal to client who places their trust on their experience shoulder. Some of the mentionable pre-sale services are Portfolio Design for customers, Property Search/ Explore, Vastu Mechanism, Site Visits, Price Negotiation, Builder –Buyer Relation.

Post-sale services Abbey Homes always makes a smooth documentation form depending on client's investment. Timely communication of payment schedule and other project update, they have opted for. It also provides them loan and finance services from different reputed banks. On the time of possession, it also makes sure regarding the smooth process of formalities. Some of the mentionable post-sale services are Documentation, Wealth creation, Loan/ Finance.

To provide quality and transparent deal to their customers by maintaining integrity of its brand Abbey Homes aims to accomplish their vision by giving an unconditional dedication to their customer service. It is also maintaining their customers’ trust and transparent approach while sharing information with the clients and providing the best quality real estate services at competitive prices.

Further, its main focus is to enable the availability of real estate solutions by keeping in mind the need to create a trustworthy partner in wealth creation.

Abbey Home’s vision is to become the India’s largest real estate services organization to facilitate asset creation for their end customers and enable peace and prosperity for them.

While talking about the future advancement of the company, Avtar said “With the help of our educated and professional team, we defiantly out stand our reputation. AHC- Abbey Homes is a reputed brand in tri-city, a vision to explore our self in all over India and abroad.”

Future Action Plan The future of this industry is really bright and enrich and to be an owner of home is desire of every youth. Since India is a country of youngsters, the upcoming era will be a boon for real estate.

|JUNE 2018|

Rahul Chawla Founder & CEO

In4velocity Systems: An Innova ve Networking So ware Solu on Provider

T

he Indian real estate is one of the most dynamic sectors that has witnessed a high growth in recent times with the rise in demand for office as well as residential spaces and can also be expected to do well in the upcoming years because of all the policy initiatives.

Launched in 2004, In4velocity Systems is a leading provider of Real Estate and Construction Software. Its award winning ERP software – In4Suite® is used daily by over 40,000+ users to manage complex construction activities and customer related sales transactions.

‘The unique and marketing technique about our business is our personal touch, agility, passion, business values and so on.’

The Key Member of the Leadership Team A well-known serial entrepreneur and a veteran of many successful startups is Rahul Chawla, the Founder and CEO at In4velocity. After completing his B.A in Computer Science, Rahul pursued his Economics from Brandeis University, U.S.A. He has also represented India in a tournament during his lifetime at St. Andrews, while playing Golf under semi-professional level.

“We offer our customers with unique experience by refocusing on our sales, operational, and marketing efforts” 20

|JUNE 2018|

At the early stage of his career, Rahul was a part of the team at Cambridge Technology Partners (NASDAQ: CATP), a global IT Consulting firm in the United States which was established in 1993. As a key member of the leadership team, Rahul has travelled across several countries by establishing CATP’s presence in Netherlands, Austria and India. He even started Orbit-e Consulting, funded by Warburg in 2000 which was focused on Business Strategy Consulting and offshore development.

It was completely based on the Indian sub-continent to provide unique offerings to the US market. In 2003, he merged Orbit-e with a Bain funded company based in the US and China.

Under Rahul’s guidance and due to his passion in real estate, In4velocity has grown from zero to US$650million in revenues in seven years with over 5500+ employees. Recently, he has also established ArrowPS a leading Professional Services Automation software company.

A Single Platform Transforming the Organization’s Architecture In4Suite® (pronounce info-suite) is its core product platform that combines a group of integrated modules together to provide a comprehensive and complete solution for the end users. It is designed to be used out-of-the-box and deployed rapidly to achieve these results. Its entire solution package can also be bought and run in components or modules which can be added on as plug and play architecture.

Implementing In4Suite® leads to a complete digital transformation of the organization and releases a huge amount of efficiencies across all groups and departments in an organization.

These days every organizations possesses these fundamental building blocks with digitally ready organization architecture like a Buy Side, Sell Side and an In Side that |JUNE 2018|

enables a product platform for their future ready approach.

So, In4Suite® has been built around the premise by connecting the Buy side, Sell side and In side of the company on a single platform through a digital chain. This enables a huge amount of efficiency and disrupts the traditional way of doing business. This in turn reflects immediately in the bottom line of an organization. Even In4velocity has built a completely connected internal and external organization architecture which allows the flow of information in real time by leveraging the extended organization concept, using portals and mobility that are tightly integrated to the In4Suite® platform.

Eliminating the Obstacles with In4Suite® Platform Since the inception of the company, it has faced a few challenges with their partners as every organization was increasingly moving into the “digital world”. Those organizations were actually trying to eliminate the physical processes to software enabled processes, by avoiding the paper works and executing the automatic processes in a fast pace.

During this time, In4velocity came up with In4Suite®, a digital platform for the Real Estate Developers to bring all the key processes of the organization on a single platform. This combines a group of integrated modules together in order to provide a comprehensive and complete solution for each end user across departments. This has built the hyper-efficiencies by impacting the bottom liner immediately. Further, it has reduced the cost drastically by increasing their customer satisfaction.

Later on, by moving completely onto In4Suite®, the company has built a competitive edge against their competitors by digitizing the whole value chain – from the purchase of

land, to the communication of customers. It is also delivering their construction units by managing all their transactions and relationships via this single platform. Today, it is proudly announcing to the real estate, construction management, PMC’s (Project Management Companies) and infrastructure companies to leverage the power of In4Suite® ERP, to streamline their operations and optimize their business process. They can also increase their revenue and shorten their cash-flow cycles on the collections by implementing In4Suite® platform. Additionally, even the rental, leasing and property management companies can automate billing & collections, maintenance and management with preventive maintenance alerts, thereby, enhancing customer experience Awards and Achievements In4velocity Systems is the only software company to get “Credai’s seal of approval” and has been selected as a Credai Preferred Partner for three years in a row. It helped them to initiate the Credai preferred partner programs. In a short span of time, it has earned several industry accolades for its innovative software platform including “Best Product Startup” in 2009, “Red Herring Top 100 Winner”, 2011, Asia and “NASSCOM Top 50 Emerging Companies”, 2011, “Best Company Practices in Real Estate” award in 2013, and also the “Company of the year 2015” award.

Future Prospects The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

Standing in the inspiring vision, the company would boldly take every step large and small with courage and intent. While talking about the company's advancements Rahul mentions, “Our vision is to be the defacto platform of choice for Real Estate Developers and Infrastructure players”.

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R

ecent advancements in economical and technological state in the real estate industry, has forced real estate brokers in evolving day-by-day to become successful. Technological advancements like internet, media, social media and various platforms have made it easy for the buyers and the sellers to conclude their transactions themselves. Oxford University states that the artificial intelligence is likely to replace 97 and 99% jobs like real estate brokers, brokerage clerks, telemarketer etc.

Consequently, the real estate brokers have now started to provide valueadded services rather than being just an intermediary.

Some of these brokers perceive the need to become global and others see the demand for a specialized expertise.

On the contrary, the clients are focused on service than brokerage. Buyers are more confident in buying ready-tomove or near completion properties rather than investing in pre-launches

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and under constructions. These customers do not mind in spending a premium for quality properties.

Furthermore, audiences are looking for properties developed by well-known brands and popular developers. All these trends have forced traditional brokers to transform into advisors and consultants that can provide more value-added services and just not connecting the two parties, ready to conduct relevant businesses. The evolving role of brokers in Advisor/consultant has become more relevant because of big transactions, multiple choices, and lack of transparency, legal formalities, more complex Tax Laws.

Real estate firms now realize the potential of providing services all around the world. There is a need to follow a multidisciplinary approach, geographically and in professional services. Being globalized, the world of real estate has rendered companies in providing real estate services such as facility management, project

management, capital markets, investments and many more such services. The role of a broker in all such services cannot be neglected. The company or individuals that have local expertise, domain experience, networking with properties, provide these services. The simple definition of the broker is connecting two parties and enhancing the value of service on both ends. However, lately, the brokers have become only first information providers. The World Wide Web now provides all the information and has rendered the real estate brokers in losing their businesses. The firm or individual who has added value to both its buyer and developer will preserve its existence in the real industry estate.

Quick Peek at the Previous Technology Changes Realtors reports that around Eighty-six per cent of home buyers started using the Internet as part of their research process before selecting a specific home and before contacting a real estate agent. The growth of internet, cloud, AI has made the services |JUNE 2018|

WatchTower

The

Evolving Roles of

Brokers in Real Estate

as Consultants

systematics, organised, and committed.

The introduction of policies, regulatory bills, and procedures has streamlined the process for brokers, customers, and developers. Using the automated services, all the parties involved are dedicated, responsible, and approachable. This regulation will ensure that only licenced parties will survive real estate business.

Brokers as Authorised Channel Partners The advent of technology has also assisted the buyers to go directly to the builder for purchasing new properties.

However, these buyers can go through brokers (now as an advisor/consultant) which can provide one doorstop for all real estate transactions. The broker directly handles all the legal issues like taxes, financials. These brokers are able to present other various options with proper comparisons; keeping in mind the client needs and demands.

Brokers as an All-in-One Service Provider Property consultant and brokerage |JUNE 2018|

firms are now providing value-added services to its clients that too without any additional costs. Such firms are investing in hiring experienced professionals involved in a wide spectrum of areas. These have specific domain experts from financial, legal, taxation, and realty backgrounds.

Using these wide services, client fulfils their needs and firms provide tailormade services. Furthermore, by doing all the work, these corporations also saves its clients from frauds and dupers.

The brokers can also work as advisors.

Generally, the audience invests in typical arrangements such as FD, MF, shares, and immovable properties.

These common terms are easy to monitor. Real estate values can be difficult to manage. These need professional experts to monitor. New consultancy firms are leveraging years of experience in realty and are monitoring, evaluating, and providing advice on such investments.

Contingency Online brokerage, technological trends, and bundled services will continue to challenge the traditional roles of real estate broker. These roles are evolving with time and now deliver a much more meaning to operations i.e. buildings relations over the conducted transactions. Brokers are assuming the role of advisors and consultants instead of merely connecting the two parties and established firms are providing value-added services at no additional costs. It is safe to say that this role of brokers will become more fragmented, transparent, and customised.

Traditional players need to revamp their business models, information sources if they want to preserve their business. Moreover, in the end, innovative players will gradually acquire the market share. In conclusion, the evolving future of real estate brokers will suit both the selfservice and full-service needs of the clients.

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Interview with INSIGHTS SUCCESS

Yatin Sharma COO

RE/MAX India

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|JUNE 2018|

India:

I

n the present world, India is emerging as a business location, particularly in the service sectors.

Its favourable demographics and strong economic growth has made the country an attractive place for property investors. Today, one of the group in the real estate sector that is determined and chiefly increasing its business development in these demographic trends is RE/MAX India. It is an able organisation to offer unprecedented levels of customer service and provide access to real estate resources.

1. Kindly explain about your organization RE/MAX, India’s No. 1 Real Estate Network since 2009, has a world-wide success phenomenon in many countries and has played a pioneering role in shaping the unorganized real estate market across the world. Our unique concept combines maximum commissions and the best support services to attract top agents, and is continually increasing the number of new entrants to the real estate business.

At RE/MAX, our agents share office overheads, pay a small management fee, and in return receive a wide variety of real estate services like

|JUNE 2018|

A Leader of Innovation and Sustainability in the Real Estate Sector

world class office facilities, international as well as national referrals, high commissions, benefits from national & region centric advertising campaigns, superior training & certification, professionalism and growing market share.

We also blend the administrative skills of our franchisees and the sales skills of our Broker Associates and create an organized and unparalleled professional framework, where our consumers would not only be able to buy/sell/rent/lease residential & commercial real estate but also find financial and legal assistance under one roof.

2. Briefly tell us about the CEO / Director / Founder of your company and his contributions towards the industry?

An Ingenious Persona - Yatin Sharma, COO at RE/MAX India, has 22 years of inspiring success driven career across Telecom, Real Estate & IT sector. He was involved in running company’s wide operational functions and leading large scale teams & projects from inception to successful

completion across organizations.

Yatin has been known as a ‘Launch Expert’ having lead teams and been part of ones which launched Paging services, Online Insurance, Mobility & IT operations across India/Indian States. He is also well-versed in various fields including sales strategies & operations, cross functional team management, marketing, cost management, IT systems & project delivery processes including CRM. He is a strong believer in the use & impact of technology in capturing & analyzing ‘Human Effort, Efficiency & Business elevation.’

Yatin is a fabulous mentor who gives independence to his team simultaneously ensuring that execution happens as expected. He is someone who is focused on numbers without losing the sight of the larger picture.

He is indeed a good human being who is really interested in team members' grooming and well-being.

3. Explain us about the current scenario of real estate from your point of view?

Announcements like Smart Cities,

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RERA, Housing for All and GST will bring Indian real estate at par with the global cities. If you see, major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai, are where people wish to come for better opportunities and these cities don’t have the requisite infrastructure to cater. With the smart cities coming around these major cities, it will help in providing better infrastructure and more people would get better prospects.

Every sector or industry has a regulatory body, so it’s high time that the real estate sector should also have its regulatory body as provided in RERA. Similarly, Housing for all is a bold move by the Prime Minister considering that major chunk of the population is under poverty line and lives in unorganized sector. But to realize it, the real estate sector should get an industry status to avail cheaper loans, should be provided at lower rates and housing can be built through a PPP (Public-Private-Partnership) model. GST will help in bringing down the cost to the companies as lot of manpower is used in the accounts department and it’s also takes lot of time. Though, the effect of GST will be clear once the notifications and rulings are out.

4. Kindly tell us about the services provided by the company to withstand the competitions?

Our mission at RE/MAX India is to develop a premium quality real estate system in providing sustained value to end users and community by

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consistently delighting the customer with best-in-class service through a superior broker network and an empowered and energized work force.

5. What are the distinct services that benefit your client base?

Being a certified and licensed real estate broker network in the market, we value our clients’ needs and property requirements and fulfill them by providing transparent, trustworthy and expert services. At RE/MAX, we just don’t believe in servicing our customers but “delighting them”.

Hence we constantly train and up-skill our agents to provide professional services and create a distinct niche for themselves through customer centric business appeal. We at RE/MAX originally stand for Real Estate Maximums – Maximum implies to satisfaction for clients, agents, and franchise owners. Our RE/MAX worldwide phenomenon is based on our ground-breaking principle of boosting “earning potential by facilitating affiliated self-employed entrepreneurs to retain the majority share of commissions on their individual sales”. With an unsurpassed support structure to back them up, we produce highly motivated Broker Associates who invest their maximum effort in ensuring a deal closure.

6. How do you see the industry, yourself and the company in the near future?

real estate is the second largest employer and is slated to grow at 30 per cent over the next decade. It is also expected that this sector will incur more non-resident Indian (NRI) investments in both the short term and the long term. We have exclusive future ahead as with growing nuclear families, working women, high disposable income and lower age group first time home buyers entry in market has changed the outlook of the real estate market. Affordable housing has bought in new purchasing power of the customers. With RERA coming in real estate market is now becoming more of transparent for buyers, sellers and brokers. Cities like Bengaluru is expected to be the most favoured property investment destination for NRIs, followed by Ahmedabad, Pune, Chennai, Goa, Delhi and Dehradun.

The Indian real estate market is expected to touch US$ 180 billion by 2020. Housing sector is expected to contribute around 11 per cent to India’s GDP by 2020 which not only gives positive aspect to future real estate but also for us at RE/MAX. 7. Tell us about the achievements gained by the organization over the past years?

Over past years RE/MAX has grown in India with RE/MAX rising to five spots to finish fifth, the highest ranking it has ever achieved in the survey according to entrepreneur. RE/MAX Agents on Average Outsold Competitors by more than 2:1 in Survey.

The real estate sector is one of the most globally recognized sectors. In India,

|JUNE 2018|

The

Real Estate

Financing

Trends

in

India

Rajat Mohan Pathak CEO Rajat Synergy Group

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|JUNE 2018|

Finance Concern

About The Author A dynamic & youthful Indian Businessman, Rajat Mohan Pathak is the CEO of Rajat Synergy Group who is bringing a mix of wisdom to the Pathak family business. Rajat is an active member of various trade bodies and government committees. He has been extensively featured at national and international platforms for various performances by both print and electronic media.

Born in Varanasi, India; Rajat attended St. John's School. Then he enrolled into Bachelors in Business Administration at S.S.M.R.V College in Bangalore and also won the “Best Outgoing Student” Award for that academic session by R.V. Trust. In the year 2003, Rajat acquired his master’s degree in Internal Business from PSG institute of Management at Coimbatore.

|JUNE 2018|

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Indian Real estate Financing industry’s scenario has witnessed a paradigm shift since the magical night of 8th November 2016 i.e. when the night Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ji announced The Demonetization followed by even mightier, revolutionary economic regulatory measures like RERA, GST & amendment in Income Tax act about Capital Gains Taxes in relation to revenue act which regulates Stamp duty collection by State Governments.

For any size of developer, colonizer, builder, Real estate industry had always been a huge capital centric segment with little or very low or negligible interference of RBI, SEBI or any other regulator as of now.

This had led to mushrooming dubious fund raising schemes by such operators from small investor’s.

Bad experience from such unapproved, unregulated fundraising activities of various stakeholders had accumulated in form of thousands of litigations pending before every respective legal forum across India.

Financial year 2017/ 2018 onwards government came in mode of no compromise in compliance of all the regulatory measures, this led to another scenario of closing down business of unorganized dubious fly-by-night operators who were unable to adhere with the strict compliances ensuring financial safety of every stakeholders involved.Thus creating a huge supply shortage in the market as of now.

This in a way is good for overall industry in long run, the unorganized sector was creating an illusion of huge pile of inventory which they were pushing at attractive offers through there very aggressive sales & marketing campaign and were mostly failing to deliver in there fairytale commitments.

Project financing & Retail Home Buyer financing was getting difficult in that phase where noncompliance was a major issue, thus there were lots of leads with the financing sales team but the conversation rate was very less. As well litigation risks were very high especially in Project Financing segment.

Financial year 2017/ 2018 and first 2 quarters of financial year 2018/ 2019 might have been very tough & lean for real estate financing business on either side, as every stakeholder in the whole real estate industry was going through compliance adherence issues.

Another latent change is coming due to massive road network construction drive by the government.

NHAI & other respective government bodies are undertaking major land accusations for the same, which has infused huge capital in the hands of those land owners who's lands has been acquired for the same, most of these with huge capital in hand are land hunting now. Another salient feature has been this rapid increase in highways network has resulted in increase of circle rate for adjunct areas to these new national highways & ring roads. Both these issues has also led to increase in land prices drastically Pan India.

All this current corrective scenario is leading us towards a momentary supply constraint and a hungry buyer’s Latent Real estate sector in India by financial year 2019/ 2020, which will now be full of regulatory compliances, resulting in almost zero cash transactions by unaccounted money at any stage in the value chain; thus a booming segment for financing business both in Project Financing and end buyer financing as well.

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|JUNE 2018|

Amit Choudhury MD & CEO

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|JUNE 2018|

Interview with Insights Success

SareStates Realty

A Proficient Advisor of the Indian Real Estate and Financial Services Sector

R

eal estate is one of the largest employers in India after agriculture and is engaged to grow at 30 per cent over the next decade.

With demand for office space as well as urban and semi-urban accommodations and the growth of the corporate environment, the upward rise of this sector is well complemented. According to the independent research, the Indian real estate market is expected to touch US$ 180 billion along with the housing sector which is also expected to contribute around 11 per cent to India’s GDP by 2020.

institution rather than an organization which injects transparency & customer centric approach into its employees. We stand by our investors and utilize our expertise and experience to provide personalized guidance to them. We also practice our core values to encourage and anticipate ROI maximization approaches to satisfy our investor’s expectation in building their property portfolio. We are a team of extremely dedicated and profound individuals who treat investor’s interest over and above anything else.

To reach these expected demands, SareStates Realty Advisors Pvt Ltd, an organization which is extremely passionate about Real Estate is implementing all their efforts and expertise in providing personalized guidance to their customers, to understand, anticipate, and satisfy their needs. Further, it is providing customer’s expectations in a timely, cost-effective and value-added manner.

2. Briefly tell us about the CEO/Founder of your company and his contributions towards the industry?

Amit Choudhury, the brain behind SareStates Realty Advisors Pvt Ltd is a great visionary and an extraordinary Leader who has gifted the industry with some Great Leaders under his efficient training. He has been nurturing the brand since its inception in 2010 which was earlier popular in the name of Way2Wealth Realty Advisors Pvt Ltd and was also a part of Café Coffee Day.

1. Kindly explain about your organization I would like to consider SareStates Realty Advisors Pvt Ltd as an

|JUNE 2018|

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With the vision of transforming the Real Estate Advisory vertical and backed by an impeccable track and passion, Amit decided to acquire the Real Estate vertical of café coffee day – Way2Wealth Realty Advisors Pvt Ltd and Rebranded it to SareStates realty Advisors Pvt Ltd. As the name suggests, his mission is to position SareStates Realty Advisors Pvt Ltd across Sare States (All States) as one of the best Real Estate advisory, Real Estate valuation, Real Estate research and property & capital markets service provider for residential segment.

3. Explain us about the current scenario of real estate from your point of view?

The real estate scenario has seen a clear transformation post entering the RERA & GST regime. The buyers trust has again come back into real estate which has helped in increase in investments and FDI’s coming into the sector.

The affordable housing segment push being initiated by the Government has transformed the vision and mission of many real estate giants. GST implementation has brought in transparency into the sector which has given an unexpected push to the developers.

4. What are the obstacles faced by the company on its journey especially among the stiff competitive era and the strategy that who’ve used to overcome those?

Generally obstacles make us stronger and better, we have learnt a lot and have bettered ourselves through the learning’s from our mistake. We have been able to stand out of the league due to the innovative and customer friendly approach which we implement into our Real Estate Advisory practices. We have been able to understand the mindset of buyers and have adapted to the market in the best possible way.

5. Kindly tell us about the services provided by the company to withstand the competitions?

We at SareStates encourage and practice our core values which are to implement all of our efforts and expertise in providing personalized guidance to our customers We provide full range of real estate services including the following: · Residential Property sales · Commercial Property Sales · Property valuation and research · Mortgage & Business Loan Advisory and sales We create the best and most profitable robust Real Estate Portfolio for our clients. We are the major associates of the most trusted financial institutions and help our clients to borrow loans and the best possible rates 6. What are the distinct services that benefit your client base?

We assist our clients to form a robust real estate portfolio

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and assure that our clients make the best ROI on their investment. We are committed to offer our clients with a dedicated consultation packaged with best in class study and analytics done by our unbiased team of extremely experienced, proactive and mastered real estate brains.

7. How do you see the industry, yourself and the company in the near future?

According to the mission of SareStates Realty Advisors is to be the most successful real estate firm in Indian River County. The company does the business to fulfill the missions and objective of the clientele. In future we see our company become a leading real estate company in India and to establish good working relationships and begin working as a team, promoting communication and suggestions from all participants. We want to become one among the top 5 realtors of the country by 2022.

8. What would your company advise the young entrepreneurs entering into the Market?

According to the today's condition of real estate market, we can give some advice to the young entrepreneurs like; · The industry has become transparent and regulated, which will be growth driver in coming days hence the time to enter in to the market. · Professional are lacking in the industry, hence more young professionals are the need of industry. · There is humongous opportunity for money making in this industry as traditional brokers will vanish from the market.

9. Kindly explain us about the unique methods followed by the company in the competitive world and the turning point which changed the organization. What is the USP of your business? · Customer first approach · Technology supported system and processes · Relationship beyond business 10. Tell us about the achievements gained by the organization over the past years? · Café Coffee Day Ventures Into Realty Business Through Way2Wealth Realty SareStates Realty Advisors Private Limited is a Private incorporated on 18 February 2010. · On 2014 Way2Wealth Realty achieved a landmark of 500 Cr Sales. · In 2015 Way2Wealth Realty ventured into mortgages & home loan advisory. · In 2016 Way2Wealth Realty achieved a landmark of 1000 Sales. · In 2017 Way2Wealth Realty Rebranded as SareStates Realty Advisory and operating in major metro cities.

|JUNE 2018|

Secrets of Being a

Successful New-Age

Real Estate Agent

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|JUNE 2018|

>

A Think Piece

I

n India, the commercial real estate sector is on its evolutionary pathway. The current real estate business in India is projected to be about fourteen billion USD. This business market is witnessing the emergence of professional players and consulting organizations with expertise in real estate. These consultants are acutely encouraging investments in the real estate and improving the infrastructure facilities. In addition, the government is also initiating acute measures to attract global investors and professionalism in real estate. A successful new-age real estate consultants are dealing with certain challenges related to the favorable demographics, increasing purchasing power, the existence of customer friendly banks & housing finance companies.

Stick to the Personality Strengths Introverts or extroverts, both have the capacity to overcome the challenges of being a successful real estate consultant. Knowing one’s strengths can actually outperform the rest by a large margin. These strengths are the friendly nature, trustworthiness, honesty, determination and so on.

Personality skills are the need of the hour for an effective referral-based business. The decent real estate agents need to know when to speak, and when to listen. This will help them to evaluate their respective personalities and then enact their strengths. The finest real estate agents are those who focus on cultivating their clients and serving them to achieve their dreams. They should always stick to their own personalities in order to drive beyond the horizons.

|JUNE 2018|

Connecting Every Dot of the Market Today, the measure of a good real estate agent is marked by the expert knowledge about the market. The present era is providing the clients with the advanced technology, where they can find plenty of information available on the internet. This led the real estate consultants to study the market stats and trends. This will help them to educate their clients about the current market and investments. They should cover every aspect of the market to stay on top and have the smarts to put it all together. They should have a deeper local knowledge for being an expert in a specific area.

Knowing the market will help them to make their clients understand the affordability of a certain up-andcoming area.

Consistent Learning and Planning to withstand the Industry The real estate consultants cannot educate and instruct their clients if they themselves are not educated. They should focus on operations that would help them to learn and be updated on trends and issues in real estate. By studying the existing and increasing mortgage rates, they are helping the clients for their future investments and sales. A basic plan and strategy are needed to invest capital in the technologies and new gadgets to be used. The follow-up process and systems to track and measure your results also play a vital role in the establishment of a successful real estate business organization. Some trials and error with the planning will help a business to run like a well-oiled machine. Continuous practice, study, learning, and planning can help a real estate agent to overcome the industry challenges and attain stability in the competitive industry.

entity of the real estate pie. . This technology will help them to keep their organization’s market shares stable in an increasingly internet-driven world.

Using the right tools and technology will maximize their impact and save time and capital. Investing in the best CRM system will help them to maintain the bond with past clients, monitor current contacts, and will further lead to attracting future clients.

This software technology can help the real estate organization to gauge progress and course-correct their processes. Independent research and analysis states that in the real estate market, the CMR technology had increased revenue by forty-one percent, per sales person and increased productivity by twenty-six percent in 2018.

Patience and Persistence Even after planning, maximizing the use of technology, it can take several weeks, months or a year to get a satisfying return on the investment.

Keeping this in mind, a real estate consultant must remain calm and persistent. Work harder with smart prospecting, right perception and positive response to failure. The ability to face the rejections is the key to establish a successful new-age real estate consultant.

According to some of the property consultants, Indian real estate market is projected to reach 180 billion USD by 2020. The top eight Indian cities will see an additional demand of 2.8 Mn units in the next 5 years, just in the residential property. Further, there would be more than 400 Mn investments in the online real estate startups. The market size of the real estate sector is expected to upsurge at a CAGR of 11.2%. According to a survey, the development in technology will acutely impact the real estate agents in the coming future.

Maximize the Technological Influence Technology has become an essential

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Smart City Mission Tier 2 and Tier 3 Cities Take the Lead

F

or a very long time, real estate developers and investors focused almost exclusively on the metros and tier 1 cities, as these were considered the safest bets for sales and returns on investment. After all, these cities were generating the most employment and therefore inward migration.

As a result, the metros and tier 1 cities across India are currently experiencing the immense pressure of overpopulation due to urban migration in search of better livelihood and enhanced quality of life, thus resulting in an inadequate infrastructure for the citizens.

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|JUNE 2018|

CXO Standpoint

The Smart Cities Mission, launched in 2015, aims to tackle the escalating problems being faced in urban areas with regards to transportation, energy supply, governance, basic urban infrastructure services and overall quality of life.

Although the mission is trying to address these issues to a certain extent, the challenges of remodelling India’s tier 1 cities into smart cities are considerable, as many of them have reached their saturation point.

Tier 2/3 Cities Stage a Comeback As a result, more and more real estate demand and supply are now drifting down towards tier 2 and tier 3 cities of the country. It is estimated that the country will have 104 tier 2 cities and 331 tier 3 and 4 cities by 2030, and only 155 tier 1 cities by 2030.

This shows the strong rise of tier 2, 3 and 4 cities in the future, and many tier 2 and tier 3 cities are now showing a strong resurgence.

Two of the driving factors behind this resurgence have obviously been increased economic activity and infrastructure development, which have served to divert migration to the larger cities.

These smaller cities also offer the important advantage of cheaper real estate prices and a lower cost of living. Their reappearance on developers’ and investors’ radars is helping to spread real estate development and demand more uniformly across the country, also decreasing the pressure on the overly-burdened metros and tier 1 cities.

Smart Cities - Snail-Like Progress One of the most important drivers of new real estate demand for many of these smaller cities has been their inclusion in the Government of India’s ambitious Smart Cities program, which - at least in theory - bodes very well for their real estate markets. While many of the bigger cities have also managed to enlist themselves under the Smart City scheme, it is, in fact, the smaller city contenders who have managed to show any visible progress.

Overall, it can safely be said that the Smart Cities program has not really unfolded as was initially expected and hoped for. As of now, only 2% of the ₹9,943 crore released under the smart city mission have been utilized, and only 5% of the proposed projects are completed. This does raise |JUNE 2018|

Santhosh Kumar Vice Chairman

About the Author Santhosh Kumar is the Vice Chairman at Anarock Property Consultants. Santhosh has more than eighteen years of experience at various levels and across disciplines. A cost & management accountant by profession was an instrumental in the merger of Jones Lang LaSalle India and Trammell Crow Meghraj which created the largest premiere real estate services firm in India.

Santhosh plays a pivotal role in the integration of the entities, strategic business development, coordination of operation between offices, and providing input for continued business growth. In January 2009, Santhosh was elevated to CEO-Operations responsibility for his consistent performance.

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questions about whether the development of smart cities by 2020 is a realistic expectation.

To be fair, there are various bottlenecks preventing the speedy implementation of these projects. Similar projects are implemented at a much faster speed in developed countries. Some of the challenges in India are doubtlessly related to hard issues such as land acquisition, buy-in from resistant stakeholders, and so on. However, there is also the factor of political will to back up the vision.

Apart from the slow implementation, it is also a fact that smart citizens are – at least in theory - an integral part of the smart city ecosystem. With more active citizen participation in such Government initiatives at the implementation and not only end-user level, the pace of Smart City development in India could theoretically be faster.

The Tier 2 & Tier 3 Smart City Advantage As an interesting adjunct to this state of affairs, it has been the smaller cities that have shown faster progress on the Smart Cities map. This could have any number of reasons: · · · · ·

They have more to gain They face fewer challenges in terms of resistance to change They have less densified urbanization patterns to work with There are fewer challenges when it comes to land acquisition.

Many have the advantage of stronger local political will.

The recent smart city rankings by the Ministry of Urban Development, also vouchsafe this trend. The tier 2 smart cities of Nagpur (score: 259.96), Vadodara (score: 195.31) and Ahmedabad (score: 190.59) topped the charts, leaving behind tier 1 cities such as Pune, Chennai and many others.

The rankings included 87 cities out of the 99 smart cities (the remaining 12 were not evaluated due to the recentness of their inclusion into the smart cities mission list) and were made based on parameters such as project implementation, expenditure, and performance of civic bodies in the past 4 years.

As already mentioned, smaller cities have more to gain from the Smart Cities program, and a strong, determined local Government can push the necessary reforms much more expediently in these smaller cities than those in the metros. Of course, the larger cities are invariably already massively congested, thereby presenting huge roadblocks to the deployment of the requisite Smart City ingredients.

However, it is also a fact that political elements may be heavily invested in maintaining the status quo.

This is especially true in cities which have large slum areas.

Smaller cities have fewer challenges to overcome on the road to becoming Smart Cities, a lot more to gain from the generous funds that have been deployed for the select cities and may have the benefit of more progress-oriented local governing bodies which are truly invested in the betterment of their cities.

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|JUNE 2018|

Transforming

‘REAL’ ESTATE with

‘VIRTUAL’ SPACE and Changing

TECHNOLOGY

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|JUNE 2018|

T

echnology is stretching its arms around every possible sphere including real estate. It has also embraced the real estate industry. From renting or buying a house to putting it up for sale, everything can be done with just a touch of fingers. The virtual space and digital data has revolutionized the industry completely. The necessity of the physical presence of both the parties, selling as well as buying, is completely eliminated with this revolution. The technology is still moving forward with a very rapid pace to further enhance the experiences of the people involved, their comfort, and the ease of doing work.

Websites and Mobile Applications Almost all the consultancies today have their own websites. These websites help people to view inventory, look for options, and see what is available. Through the websites, it is possible to view the tax and purchase history along with the photos and detailed description of the property. The neighborhood can be checked as well.

Along with the websites, many companies have their own mobile apps also. With this technology in hand, people can stay informed all the time without doing a thing.

The apps enable the advantage of getting notification of the new relevant properties.

Moreover, the buyer can set preferences like, the locality, the area, the price range, etc.

Some apps even allow multiple flat owners to put their property information on the portal, helping buyers to survey all available options.

E-signing Services To aid the multiparty real estate transactions, new platforms have emerged today. These have all the information arranged in an organized way, saving time of the people interested. This technology is improving the efficiency in various ways, from simple file sharing to personal task lists to secure and legal e-signatures. It has also changed the scenario of how agents |JUNE 2018|

respond to their clients.

Virtual Tours Now with the help of technology, the agents can provide a visual footage of the property or home to be sold to the buyers, investors, or renters. The interior as well as the exterior of the place can be explored through a smartphone, without having to be present in person. This has made the process very easy. It is especially useful for the people who are in one city or country and are looking to invest in a place at another geographical location. Also, now with the advancement in technology, 3D virtual tours are possible. These provide an enhanced view to the buyers and leave an impression on them, making it easier for the property owners or agents to convince them.

Tech Talk

Predictive Analysis The future of the real estate consultancies will be defined by this technology.

Predictive analysis will target the buyers showing them exactly the kind of property they are interested to buy. It is similar to the e-commerce portals in which people can produce their personalized wish-list. This will improve the overall user experience, leaving them with a ‘feel-good’ vibe. This type of experiential shopping has already been used by the retail market to attract its customers. The same can now be done in real estate.

These are few of the many technologies that have emerged and are still emerging. In the today’s world, anything and everything is possible with technology, from enhancing already existing services to improving user comfort to building trust within the clients.

New innovations, everyday, have disrupted the world of real estate and are challenging the old ways of working. This has boosted the performance levels and set bars very high for all the companies. While it has made the arena easy for the companies, it has also made it swifter for the customers and has made the processes very transparent.

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