VIRTUAL HOME BUYING

After a challenging pandemic, the Indian real estate sector is slowly recovering in 2021. Though the construction and real estate industries have declined by 8.6% and 1.5% respectively between April 2020 and March 2021, Q4 has seen a YoY growth of 14.5% and 5.4% respectively, according to the data released by the NSO (National Statistical Office). The economy is steadily moving towards normal with increased vaccination rates, and the real estate industry is calibrating itself to go along with it.

Post-Covid Opportunities And Challenges

The residential sector took a big hit during the first few months of the pandemic. But October saw a spike in demand as house rent and loan interest rates dropped, coupled with the time of festivities. This saw customers purchasing new homes. The fall in stamp duty in Maharashtra also played a major role in this increased demand. Moreover, during the second half of 2020, employees began to work from home which meant that the demand for larger and more spacious houses went up.

On the brighter side, real estate firms adopted digital methodologies to conduct their business.

In many tier-2 cities, we even observed landlords listing their properties online for the first time. From a practical perspective, going digital made sense as physical site visits went down, citing social distancing reasons. In addition, nowadays, demand for housing is driven largely by millennials. They are naturally tech-savvy and expect 24×7 availability and connectivity everywhere. Both to ensure safety of the agents and customers, and to cater to the new millennial home buyers, firms have begun investing in new-age technology to navigate the new post-Covid world.

One of the most significant developments on this front is the use of virtual reality. VR offers homeowners digital walkthroughs of their prospective homes. Now that people are hesitant to step out, developers are using multiple features like downloadable floor plans, 360-degree drone view, dollhouse view and much more to create as complete a virtual experience as possible.

Brokerage In New Age RE

Real estate brokerage is expected to assume a dominant position in the near future. Not only do new real estate solutions provide a complete virtual home-searching experience but it also supports the real estate agents better. VR has immense potential in the creation of cloud-based virtual office set-ups. This means that the need for brick and mortar offices, and physical proximity is reduced, saving the company significant costs. But at the same time, the sense of community and togetherness is not lost and inter-departmental communication is facilitated regardless of where team members are geographically.

On-ground activities are also made better through virtual solutions. Throughout last year, agents have been forced to step out on a regular basis to show people around houses, as many homeowners are still hesitant to browse for homes online. Virtual office solutions enable these agents to access data, CRM and other resources while being mobile and also giving them the necessary inputs whenever needed without stepping outside. In addition, virtual training solutions enable real estate agents to build their skills, knowledge and professional savvy that is required to drive more sales and build a stronger career. The goal here is to help agents with better retention and quick grasping of facts with training imparted in a gamified model.

Although, most noteworthy is the approach of these new age firms to the compensation model - agents are motivated by giving them the options of earning equity and a handsome brokerage fee on every sale they make.

The real estate industry is no exception to the change in the working model of the world. Virtual solutions have now replaced the traditional sense of sight and touch. But the core remains the same - skilled real estate agents, now aided with technology that can enable them to conduct virtual deals and earn success and respect from their customers and colleagues.

Shashank Vashistha

Executive Director, eXp Realty, India

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