India Gets Its First Real Estate E-commerce Portal: 10 Things You Should Know

The central government has launched India’s first e-commerce portal for real estate, HousingForAll.com. The realty portals currently operating in India only facilitate marketing and advertising of properties, but HousingForAll.com is the first platform which will actually make it possible for homebuyers to purchase a house online.

The portal has been launched by the National Real Estate Development Council (Naredco), a real estate developers’ association formed under the aegis of the housing and urban affairs ministry.

To explain the significance of the portal, housing and urban affairs secretary Durga Shanker Mishra said HousingForAll.com has the potential to become the ‘Amazon’ of India’s real estate sector.

It remains to be seen whether that happens or not, but for now, here are the 10 key things that customers or homebuyers should know about HousingForAll.com:

1. The platform will list only completed RERA-registered residential units that have received occupancy certificates. It means only ready-to-move-in units will feature on the website.

2. The portal will allow homebuyers to book a house online. Once they have shortlisted the projects, they can visit the site to take the final decision.

3. For the first month, the portal will be open for just real estate developers to register their projects till 13 February.

4. For homebuyers, the portal will open from 14 February with a 45-day home-buying festival that will offer discounts to buyers. For the first 15 days, customers will be able to view offers and shortlist units. Actual purchases can be made from 1 March till 31 March 2020.

5. The portal will feature actual pictures and videos of residential units on the platform (which will be provided by developers) to enable buyers to see the actual property being sold.

6. One can book/reserve a residential unit on the portal with a payment of as low as Rs 25,000. This initial deposit is fully refundable in case the customer decides not to purchase the unit.

7. Customers will also get an immediate notification if the units they have shortlisted are already sold.

8. The portal claims that it will be offering units at the lowest price compared with any other channels.

9. Naredco estimates around 1,000 projects to be listed for the 45-day all-India online home-buying festival.

10. Over the longer term, the aim is to make the entire ready-to-move-in inventory across India available on sale through the portal.