These days we are getting almost everything at our doorsteps, thanks to all the great startups that have made it possible. But do you know that there are some great startups that provide you even real estate services at your fingertips?
Technology has made this process very easy. One can have all the information related to a property with just a click on the internet. The real estate industry is using enhanced technologies like Machine Learning, AI and other powerful tools to enhance customer services. Real estate has become the current hot industry among working employees and students who are away from their hometowns.
Everyone wants a piece of land. It’s the only sure investment. It can never depreciate like a car or washing machine. Land will only double its value in ten years.
– Sam Shepard, American actor, and author
As per a report from Statistica.com 99% of the residents aged between 31-40 years use the internet while searching for a home in the US. India is also a developing nation and the internet has penetrated the entire country. So, one can expect more and more people to look for a home on the internet. Thus real estate has become a hot topic for tech-based startups. Let’s see what are some of the best Real Estate startups in India and what they offer.
- QuikrHomes
- NestAway
- PropTiger
- Colive
- Awfis
- Ghar360
- ZoloStays
- NoBroker
- StayAbode
- Square Yards
- Grexter Living
- CoHo
QuickrHomes
Founders: Pranay Chulet and Jiby Thomas
Founded: 2008
Quikr is a Bangalore-based Indian classified advertising platform founded by Pranay Chulet and Jiby Thomas in 2008. They provide platforms in various categories such as household goods, cars, mobile phones and also real estate. QuikrHomes is a merged property portal of Quikr with CommonFloor, launched in September 2015. It allows the users to search for residential, commercial and agricultural properties to either buy or rent out.
QuikrHomes is currently present in over 1000 cities and towns all across India including Pune, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai and Hyderabad.
NestAway
Founders: Amarendra Sahu, Smruti Parida, Deepak Dhar and Jitendra Jagadev
Founded: 2015
NestAway is a Bangalore-based online platform founded by Amarendra Sahu, Smruti Parida, Deepak Dhar and Jitendra Jagadev in 2015. NestAway provides homeowners to list their properties for rent and home seekers to find furnished homes to choose from and book from. Their app provides furnished home bookings, services like home cleaning, electric and plumbing checks, and more.
NestAway allows its users to find, book, and move into a rental home of their choice across almost all Indian cities. They aim at providing better rental solutions with the help of design and technology. The company presently caters for all the major cities like Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Bengaluru and more.
PropTiger
Founders: Dhruv Agarwala, Prashan Agarwal, Kartik Verma
Founded: 2011
PropTiger is a Noida-based property portal founded in 2011 that allows users to buy property in India. The users leave their required property specifications online and PropTiger offers solutions with a wide range of services including identifying apartment options, organizing site visits, budget and affordability analysis, helping with unit selection and application filing with real estate developers to facilitate housing loans.
PropTiger is currently present in 12+ cities, including major cities like Noida, Gurgaon, Ahemdabad, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Kolkata. They have over 30,000 properties listed on their website and have over 300 agents. PropTiger has sold over RS 15,000 crore worth of properties.
Colive
Founder: Sundari Rangarajan
Founded: 2016
Colive is a technology-powered network of branded serviced homes that offers rooms for high-end and well-located shared rooms that are a modern and sustainable lifestyle. The company was founded by Sundari Rangarajan in 2016 based in Bangalore. They provide an “all-in” solution including the layout of the house, services of cleaning, internet and TV, insurance, water, gas and electricity. Colive provides home rentals, shared living spaces, and PGs located near educational institutions and workplaces.
awfis
Founder: Amit Ramani
Founded: 2015
awfis is a Delhi-based provider of managed coworking spaces founded by Amit Ramani in 2015. It allows users to browse for spaces based on the type of space, city, locality and capacity. On awfis’ platform, most of the facilities are on the managed aggregation model. The owner gives the property to the company at no upfront cost and takes a higher share of the revenue.
The users on awfis can book work desks, private cabinets, business centres, and meeting rooms and book them online. They provide a platform where its community members can regularly interact, network, and share ideas at events and seminars. It connects the members with service providers in the field of accounting, legal, recruitment, payments, web services and other services as well. To support its community members, awfis has partnered with Incubators/Accelerators, Angel Networks, VC Funds and Startup Mentors.
Ghar360
Founders: Ajesh Joy and Sanju Thomas
Founded: 2012
Ghar360 is a Bangalore-based startup founded by Ajesh Joy and Sanju Thomas in 2012 it is a cloud-based 3D augmented reality platform that lets its users
experience a virtual walk through the house with the digital platform even before it is constricted.
Ghar360 has developed a unique idea to reinvent the interior shopping experience by digitizing the floor plan into an interactive walkable space which is constructed to make customers an idea of the reality of the living space before purchasing it. The startup has raised total funding of $20k from TLabs.
ZoloStays
Founder: Akhil Sikri
Founded: 2015
ZoloStays is a Bangalore-based provider of branded accommodations founded by Akhil Sikri in 2015. The startup offers PGs, serviced apartments and independent flats. They also provide amenities like TV, Wi-fi, fridge, washing machine, food, RO water facility, power backup and more.
ZoloStays associates with owners and offers the properties as managed accommodations. PG owners who manage their own properties can also affiliate with ZoloStays and accept non-Zolo tenants. The company has raised total funding of up to $100 million and earned revenue by charging a commission on the monthly rent.
NoBroker
Founders: Saurabh Garg, Amit Kumar Agarwal and Akhil Gupta
Founded: 2014
NoBroker is a Bangalore-based real estate search platform founded by Saurabh Garg, Amit Kumar Agarwal and Akhil Gupta in 2014. NoBroker eliminates brokers while connecting flat owners and landlords with tenants. It is a C2C model of property portal that uses advanced technologies like Machine Learning algorithms and Artificial Intelligence to sort, select and list properties better by gathering data and extracting listing information from images of ‘to-let’ signs.
Nobroker has now forayed into a brokerage-free buy and-sell properties as well and the company also verifies each listing to make sure they are owners and not middlemen maintaining the authenticity of the platform.
StayAbode
Founders: Viral Chhajer and Devanshish Dalmiya
Founded: 2016
StayAbode is a Bangalore-based startup founded by Christ University alumni Viral Chhajer and Devanshish Dalmiya in 2016 that builds coliving spaces for the rental residential real estate market. In 2020, it was acquired by NestAway for an undisclosed amount. They thrive at providing a hassle-free abode to millennials looking for coliving spaces using the platform of technology as a source to offer small private spaces to its users that are elegant and fully furnished.
They also provide their users with a safe environment and cover utilities. They provide fully furnished rooms and amenities like wi-fi, water, electricity, maintenance, parking and DTH. StayAbode takes up entire building space on long-term leases and then re-works the interiors to convert it to a co-living space and then sub-rent it to their customers.
Square Yards
Founders: Tanuj Shori and Kanika Gupta
Founded: 2013
Square Yards is a Delhi-based online real estate advisory and brokerage services firm founded in 2013 by Tanuj Shori and Kanika Gupta – an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management. The company has a field employee base of about 500 across five countries and is active in 15 cities in India. On the platform, each client is assigned a unique relationship manager who handholds the clients throughout the asset ownership – similar to a private banking model.
It is currently located in ten countries and 31 cities and has more than 1000 employees. Square Yards has been valued at more than $288 million as of 2019 and has also banked the ‘Real-Estate Marketing Company of the year by Accommodation Times and ‘Startup of the year’ by Silicon India.
Grexter Living
Founders: Pratul Gupta and Nikhil Dosi
Founded: 2016
Grexter Living is a coliving space startup founded by Pratul Gupta and Nikhil Dosi. Grexter Living offers functional and built-to-suit urban studio rooms that provide all the necessary amenities and, at the same time, are aesthetically appealing. Catering primarily to salaried employees, fresh graduates, and techies in the age group of 18-30 years, the spaces they provide consist of a large common kitchen with another huge designated area that has lounges, gaming consoles, and home theatres.
CoHo
Founder: Uday Lakkar
Founded: 2015
CoHo is one of the country’s first coliving spaces was founded in 2015. It offers fully furnished accommodation on a sharing and individual basis with amenities such as hot food, wifi, laundry services, and 24/7 security, along with access to common spaces such as lounges, games and reading rooms and special events such as poker nights. All this without any security deposit, brokerage or furnishing costs.
CoHo raised funds from veterans like Sachin Bhatia (Co-founder, MakeMyTrip and TrulyMadly), Rajesh Sawhney (Co-Founder, GSF and InnerChef), Mahesh Parasuraman (Ex-MD, Carlyle PE), Dheeraj Jain (Partner, UK based Hedge fund), amongst others.
Conclusion
Real estate is one of the biggest industries in the world. The Indian real estate industry is expected to reach a US$1 trillion market by 2030. These startups are prominent contributors to the growing industry of real estate. They are making real estate easy to access and making it more affordable for a normal person to buy or rent a property.
FAQs
What are the top real estate startups in India?
- QuikrHomes
- NestAway
- PropTiger
- Colive
- Awfis
- Ghar360
- ZoloStays
- NoBroker
- Grexter Living
- Square Yards
- CoHo
- StayAbode
Is real estate a good business?
Yes, the scope for demand makes it a profitable business. The real estate market size will become USD 1 trillion by 2030, accounting for 18-20% of India’s GDP.
