Housing.com, India’s leading real-estate portal owned by Elara Technologies, has announced the launch of ‘Housing Edge’, a unique full stack rental and allied services platform. This platform enables digitization of multiple services which tenants and landlords can use without leaving the comfort of their homes. The services are for both owners and tenants and include packages like online rent payment, online rental agreements, tenant verification, packing & moving, furniture rental, home interiors and home services.
While Housing Edge services are available in Delhi, Bengaluru, Gurugram, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune, plans are underway to offer these services in several other cities. The company has also partnered with industry-leading brands to ensure a quality user experience. Over time, more innovative services will be added on to the online platform.
“The Housing Edge platform brings exceptional technology-driven innovations that our brand is well-known for providing. We have already changed the way property transactions take place in India, by way of acting as a one-stop solution for a buyer. With an aim towards replicating the same model in the allied services area, the company is offering innovative technology solutions that will make the journey of a consumer looking for such services, seamless and easy to use,” said Dhruv Agarwala, Group CEO of Housing.com, Makaan.com & PropTiger.com.
Agarwala further added, “Rental housing has already emerged as a big opportunity in a developing economy like India, where the pace of urbanization is accelerating. Even though property ownership will continue to be the preferred choices for people in India, rental housing will allow them to have the option of securing a short-term home of their choice, with convenience and affordability as they move to new cities.
Through Housing Edge, we have attempted to make the end-to-end process of renting and moving into a home simple and hassle free.”
Mani Rangarajan, Group COO, Housing.com, Makaan.com and PropTiger.com said
“Our vision is to provide innovative products and services that would have a strong market impact and help develop the overall eco-system. In pursuit of that objective, we have launched simplified packages to provide professional assistance to both homeowners and home seekers.
Also, to make the overall journey hassle-free, we have partnered with some of the top brands in the country that have already built a strong market reputation. These strategic partnerships will truly help Housing Edge become a one-stop-shop for tenants and landlords in India.”
The numbers game
After the company decided to start the online rent agreement feature on Housing Edge in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic that imposed tough restrictions on movement, services have been rendered in over 80+ cities across 14 states, which is an unprecedented reach for any online rent agreement service, made possible only because it is fully digital. Nearly 2,000 users have already made use of the online rent agreement facility. Since the response from users has exceeded expectations, the company plans to launch these services in more states.
The Pay Rent feature on Housing Edge, which was launched simultaneously for all platforms including Android, IOS and web, has received a tremendous response wherein, the company has facilitated more than 2,00,000 transactions in the past seven months and has processed pay rent requests exceeding Rs. 600 crores.
According to the firm, its exclusive packages meant for landlords and property seekers, have been well-received in both Tier-I and Tier-II cities. Under the company’s offerings for tenants, over 1,000 users have already availed of the services in the test phase that was launched in Bengaluru, wherein consumers have enjoyed the pocket friendly packages that give access to exclusive properties listed directly by owners and helps customers to manage the transaction themselves and help save on brokerage.
Housing.com has been able to clock significant month-on-month revenue growth on its exclusive owner services, under which the company assists property owners to not only market their properties to a large number of clients but also offers them bespoke listing management plans. In this difficult real estate market, Housing.com is helping landlords to effectively market their properties among tenants through the use of 3D digital tours and assistance through a concierge service, which is again a unique value-added service in the industry.
Assuring quality through collaboration
In an attempt to further widen the scope of its services, Housing.com has tied up with brands such as Urban Company, RentoMojo, Livspace, HappyLocate and AuthBridge to provide renters assisted services on Housing Edge at attractive rates.
Housing.com’s tie up with RentoMojo, India’s largest rental company in furniture and appliances that offers tenants a wide range of products, including furniture and home appliances on rent.
Its partnership with India’s top home services brand, Urban Company, on the other hand, helps customers have easy access to all their home maintenance needs, including deep cleaning, plumbing and painting among others. Home-owners can avail of these services in order to get their homes ready for renting.
The company’s partnership with Livspace – India’s and Southeast Asia’s largest home interiors and renovation platform, will help customers get access to trusted, professionally designed interiors for all rooms, including modular kitchens, wardrobes, furniture and false ceilings.
Housing.com’s tie-up with AuthBridge, which has vast experience in providing identity management and verification products, will help home/PG owners to easily verify the identity and do background checks (including criminal records) of their potential tenants and avail of the Tenant Police Registration Services.
Similarly, the tie-up with HappyLocate, a one-stop relocation platform that has partnered with 25+ best packers and movers in India that service over 16,000 PIN codes across the country, will allow consumers to get quality moving services, to ensure a smooth home relocation experience.
About Elara Technologies Pte. Ltd.
Singapore-based technology services company, Elara Technologies Pte. Ltd., co-founded by Dhruv Agarwala, Group CEO, is the country’s only full stack real estate technology platform that owns Housing.com, Makaan.com and PropTiger.com.
It is the only player in India that offers a full range of services in the real estate space, assisting consumers through their entire home seeking journey all the way from initial search and discovery to financing to the final step of transaction closure. It offers advertising and listings products to real estate developers and agents, exclusive sales and marketing solutions to builders, data and content services, and personalized search, virtual viewing, site visits, negotiations, home loans and post- sales services to consumers for both buying and renting.
Housing.com
Founded in 2012, Housing.com is India’s most innovative real estate advertising platform for home owners, landlords, developers and real estate brokers. The company offers the largest selection of verified listings for new homes, resale homes, rentals and co-living spaces in India through a trained team of data collectors, analysts and auditors. The one-of-a-kind Data Sciences Lab at Housing.com analyses a significant body of data to allow buyers and sellers to make intelligent decisions.
PropTiger.com
PropTiger.com is India’s leading digital real estate advisory firm offering a one-stop platform for buying residential real estate. Founded in 2011 with the goal to help people buy their dream homes, PropTiger.com leverages the power of information and the organization’s deep-rooted understanding of the real estate sector to bring simplicity, transparency and trust in the home buying process. PropTiger.com helps home-buyers through the entire home-buying process through a mix of technology-enabled tools as well as on-ground support. The company offers researched information about various localities and properties and provides guidance on matters pertaining to legal paperwork and loan assistance to successfully fulfil a transaction. Since inception, the PropTiger.com team has facilitated sales of over 30,000 homes worth nearly Rs. 20,000 crores.
Makaan.com
Makaan.com was acquired by Elara in May 2015, with a vision to establish a true “marketplace” in real estate. With consumer ratings on more than 30,000 sellers, credible listings data and real-time intelligence on property search, Makaan.com has quickly emerged as the preferred partner for consumers looking to rent, buy or sell a home. Makaan.com offers its online consumers maximum property options and has become one of the largest advertising platforms in online real estate in India with over one million residential properties listed across the country.