3D preview of flats

Now you can have a three dimensional view of your wannabe residential flats as the developers have created a buzz with digital marketing and soft tools to induce the buyers. The developers and builders are using every tool in the kitty right from using drones to film new projects and thus offer a preview of how the flat will look like to the prospective buyer.

Already affected by the sagging sales, the developers have resorted to digital marketing tools to sell at least 2, 00,000 residential units during the October-December period, which translates for about 40 per cent of the annual sales. Industry watchers say developers are hoping to close as many deals by the year end as possible.

A host of builders are using 3D walkthroughs that help prospective buyers to visualise what they are going to buy. Speaking about the new approach, Advitiya Sharma, co-founder of Housing.com told a newspaper, “We have used drones to capture the view of a project from various angles. For a consumer, the Internet is the first point of enquiry and we want the experience to be good.”  This company, which counts Tata Housing and Rustomjee among its clients, says it has about 10,000 projects under its net. Several developers, including Tata Housing, Godrej, Mahindra, Wave and CHD already have a digital presence on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest. Tata Housing recently partnered with Snapdeal to sell homes online.

It may be noted that the businesses are moving towards new age marketing. Real estate is no exception. Nowadays referrals and word-of-mouth are becoming very critical for brand building and sustaining growth. This explains why social media and online presence have become very pertinent for real estate marketers, as they help them engage with prospective buyers, says A Harikesh, Senior Vice-President, Marketing & Sales, Tata Housing Development Company.

As per the data put out by the ASSOCHAM, its recent study found that realty firms spend about Rs 2,500 crore every year on publicity across different media and digital marketing accounts. Real estate portal CommonFloor.com has launched an augmented reality-based property search app called CommonFloor Real Estate, which also enables GPS-based map search and brings all its services to the mobile phone. If compared with traditional marketing like newspaper advertisements or billboards, digital advertisements are far cheaper and have a longer shelf life. Besides, industry watchers say that the shift to digital media is also helping developers cut costs by 10-15 per cent.

You buy mobiles, cameras, laptops and even groceries online, so why not buy your dream residential flat on the net? If you were waiting for such a thing to happen, your wait is now over.

Online marketplace Snapdeal and Tata Value Homes, a subsidiary of Tata Housing with focus on affordable housing, recently announced partnership to enable users to buy houses online. As part of the partnership, about 1,000 homes across projects in cities such as Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Chennai will be put up for sale on Snapdeal. These houses are priced between Rs.18 lakh and Rs.70 lakh and range from 1 BHK to 3 BHK.

The idea was inspired by the fact that as per the reports, one in every two online real estate searches is to buy property and there is a $43 billion market opportunity here, said sources. We started selling homes through our own website last year in December and have already sold over 600 units. This partnership will help us take that to the next level,” Tata Housing Development Company Senior Vice President, Marketing and Sales, A. Harikesh, told a press conference to announce the deal here. Additionally, Tata Value Homes will continue to sell through its own portal as well, he added.

When you take possession of the house, customers buying the house through Snapdeal will get Rs.10,000 a month for a year as an assured rent whether they stay on premise or lease it out as part of the deal. “Details about the project and other things are shared on the website. Registered users can book a unit for Rs.30,000 and then our offline team takes over,” he said. However, the booking amount is not refundable in case the customer does not buy the house. E-commerce story is unfolding in a major way in India and it is predicted that more portals will embrace this idea of promoting realty. “We already have close to 50,000 merchants on our board. I think real estate, as a category, will do well on our platform because people trust our brand. We want to offer our customers the best deals,” Snapdeal co-founder and CEO Kunal Bahl said welcoming the home buyers on to his portal. Harikesh said the company also planned to launch new projects in Kolkata and Delhi-NCR before March 2015, which might also get added to the deal.