Online Home Shopping a New Trend
It is difficult to imagine homes to be sold online like other online flash sales and shopping festivals, however picking up a house online is a reality now.
There was a lot of skepticism in the market when it was claimed by a leading developer that over 50 flats were sold during the google Online Festival, 18 months ago, however this trend of online home shopping seems to be on a firm footing now as within a space of few months there have two big campaigns in this regard, in the month of June there was a four day realty online flash sale that was organised by some leading companies. Apart for these there are reports that several leading real estate developers across India are making provisions to sell their properties online.
According to the builders the response to these flash sales have been very positive, in terms of registration before sale opened, also online selling of property is a good way to connect with the NRI customer base as all the help required from registering to documentation can be done online. The international markets like United States of America, United Kingdom, and United Arab Emirates have seen a tremendous surge in online sales of properties.
The biggest add on factor of online sales is freedom from brokers, since the commission of online sellers are less than brokers the developer can then pass on that margin directly to the customer as a discount which is like icing on the cake. With a lot of unsold inventory hanging around, developers are putting these units on sale through various online portals with attractive discounts.
The question now arises are online sales feasible for tier II cites?
The answer to this is, yes at this point most of the online sales is happening in major metros, however with rapid social and economic growth happening in cities like Chandigarh, Mohali, Patiala, different towns of Haryana other than Gurgaon it would just a matter of time before this trend catches on in these cities, these cities are also hot favourites among NRI buyers looking for investment options in India, also the young working professional are looking towards these cities as not only for investment but also for end use as they feel they could have a more work-life equation in these cities.
Flip side of online sales
As the saying goes "there are always two sides of a coin", similarly there are a few flip sides to online sales to the primary one being misrepresentation of facts as the buyer is actually not going to the site to verify details, another area of concern could be verification of authenticity of the developer. A lot of developers change their payment plans after accepting token amount so you need to be careful about that aspect.
Although online selling is still in its early stages in India, however it could become the future of Indian Real Estate scenario in the near future once the Indian consumer becomes comfortable with the idea of online sales.