360 Realtors & its journey so far from Mr. Ankit Kansal, Founder and MD of 360 Realtors

Can you tell us more about 360 Realtors & its journey so far?

360 Realtors is one of the largest Institutional Channel Partners (ICP) in India. Through our value-added Real Estate consulting, we have sold more than 15,000 residential units over the past five years. We have a ground presence in 40+ domestic & 10+ international locations & we assist buyers throughout the property purchase cycle – starting from property search to purchase to the post-purchase formalities.

What is the current market outlook of Indian Real Estate? Are market trends conducive?

Market sentiments are definitely improving in most of the prime Indian markets, as our recent primary research has suggested that transaction volumes are picking up in major Indian cities. After the advent of RERA, there has been a notable rise in consumer confidence level about the market. As prices have corrected in recent years, home buyers are finding the industry attractive. Since prices might increase in another year or two, these are favorable times for entering Real Estate.

The industry is also getting a positive thrust from the expatriate community as NRIs currently constitute around 25% of the market. Robust underlying fundamentals, increased transparency & a weaker Indian Rupee are attracting the NRIs in big volume.

Do you think the current Modi government has taken ample steps to revive the market sentiments? What are your suggestions to the government?

The Modi government in its first installment has taken a host of remarkable steps such as RERA, GST, Demonetization, & REIT, etc. Hence, the industry is pinning a lot of hope on Modi 2.0.

The government so far has taken some prudent steps in its second installment. Noteworthy steps have been taken such as NBFC recapitalization, slashing of the Repo Rate, & policy coordination to boost the affordable home segment in the country.

However, the industry needs more policy intervention & support from the government & regulatory bodies. For a long time, the developer fraternity has been asking for single-window clearance to expedite the overall construction process. Likewise, the government needs to do more to infuse liquidity into housing finance & harmonize the present policy loopholes to ensure faster & easier funding for developers. It can also consider working on the definition of affordable homes so that more developers & projects can come under its purview.

What is your opinion about the proposed stress fund? Do you think it can revitalize the market sentiments?

The government is mulling over a proposed stress fund to help stalled projects. I guess it is the need of the hour. Despite the fact that sentiments have improved in Indian Real Estate, the overall market is still feeling the heat of unsold inventories. In Delhi-NCR alone there are around 200,000 unsold units. The numbers are even higher in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).

A financial stimulus in the form of a stress fund can be the real game changer. It will help to commence work on stalled projects & lead them towards completion. Such a resolution will give a huge relief to the stressed home buyers. It will also infuse a lot of positivity in the industry.

How much innovation & technologies are you leveraging? Do you think technology will be a game changer in Indian Real Estate?

The future of the Real Estate Advisory business will be underpinned on technology, innovation & analytics. As an organization, 360 Realtors understands that if we want to clock exponential growth, then technology is the key differentiator. We are planning some disruptive Real Estate Products based on machine learning & Big Data. We have also recently moved our Technology Development Center (TDC) to Pune from Noida in order to leverage better manpower.  Going forward, we will continue to invest heavily in technologies.

What are your future expansion plans? Are you planning international expansion?

Apart from primary residential Real Estate, we are also entering aggressively into a lot of ancillary services such as commercial leasing, broker aggregation, Real Estate strategic advisory & Real Estate media, etc. We envision being a dominant player across the entire value chain of Indian Real Estate.

We already have a strong international presence, as over 30% of our revenues are coming from international offices. We have 10+ international offices across GCC, North America & the Asia Pacific region. We are also eyeing other international offices in the near future.

Corporate Comm India (CCI Newswire)