BENGALURU : Signalling consolidation in the online realty space, Newscorp-backed property portal PropTiger said on Tuesday that Mumbai-based Housing.com would merge with it, making it the country’s largest digital real estate company.
Dhruv Agarwala, co-founder and CEO of PropTiger, will take over as the chief executive of the joint entity. The two brands will continue to run as separate entities and will raise $55 million in fresh funds – $50 million News Corp’s REA Group and $5 million from SoftBank, which has substantial investment in Housing.
Satish B N, executive director (south) at Knight Frank, told Express that the move would make the two brands come across stronger as a joint unit.
On the growth prospects for online realty platforms, he said, “People are still more comfortable with offline transactions when it comes to real estate. They usually want to meet in person with the owner to talk about property deals.” According to a joint statement by the two companies, the new entity will be “the only player in India offering the full range of online and offline services in the real estate space, such as personalised search, virtual viewing, site visits, legal and financial diligence, negotiations, property registration, home loans and post- sales service”.
Housing.com is a property listing portal, while PropTiger has on-ground staff who interact with customers. “The timing of this deal is right. The deal will create a unified technology-driven platform for buying, selling and renting of homes,” said Agarwala.
SoftBank Group International MD Jonathan Bullock said, “Housing is well established as an online real estate platform brand and we have been working with the management team to create strong execution capabilities to offer full stack services under one umbrella.
PropTiger has already created a great transaction engine.