The Launch of Virtual Tours for Resale and Rental Properties

Indian consumers are increasingly becoming digitally savvy and prefer using online interactions owing to the cost efficiency. Resale and rental properties are no exceptions. With new improvements in design and marketing, every realtor is trying to provide better service. CommonFloor decided to launch live-in virtual tours to improve the property search efficiency for its consumers. Read on to see how and why this idea was conceived.

Why Virtual Tours? 

Sumit Jain, the co-founder and CEO of Bangalore based real estate portal, CommonFloor had one thing to say about the use of pictures. “Photographs are of the past”, he said. This makes every sense since technology today can drive multiple applications in a jiffy. The world is transitioning to virtual reality and Google Glass today, and it makes all the sense to revamp one’s services for today’s age.

By using virtual tours for resale and rented properties, CommonFloor is aiming to provide a close to reality experience. The idea essentially was to eliminate the need to visit the property to make a decision on the same. The live-in virtual tour on the CommonFloor website and mobile app are set to do exactly that.

In 2012, Housing.com had introduced the concept of verified listings that were backed with data. They sent their team to visit every listed house and verify and collect information about the listing. It was the differentiating move then, which the competition adopted within a year’s time.

How is this Information Collected? 

CommonFloor plans to create a hybrid model with its virtual tours. They plan to have their team actively map every single listed house in their portal while empowering brokers with technology. A plan to scale the operations up to 5 lakh property mappings is in place as more than 5000 properties have already given virtual tours. The company provides its services to the customer for free, whereas the revenue pitches is on a “per lead” basis from the brokers/homeowners.

Lalit Mangal, the co-founder and CTO of CommonFloor explains the virtual tours to be a product that gives the company a cutting edge in the market and provides the seekers with a wall-to-wall and ceiling-to-floor exploratory power.

CommonFloor currently has a team of over 1000 employees and has listed over 1 lakh residential projects from 200+ cities. They have also developed the virtual reality based device called CommonFloor Retina that takes live-in tours to the next level.


This is a promotional post by Pravitha Rohit

The Hottest Countries for Real Estate Investment in 2015

The Global real estate market has evolved big time in the last few years and the investors are now increasingly investing in emerging economies like India. Even though the rating agencies world over have given preference to developed nations like United States, Australia, France, Hong Kong, Singapore, England and the United Arab Emirates ahead of India, the nonresident Indians and institutional investors world over believe otherwise. And their belief does make a lot of financial sense.

The Indian property market is among the fastest growing sector in world realty and as a result the country has emerged as the hottest destination for realty investments in 2015. Here are the important reasons for renowned interest in Indian real estate industry –

• Lower prices

Barring few places in Delhi, Noida, Mumbai and luxury flats in Gurgaon, the realty prices in India are much lower as compared to the world’s average. This basically means that the investors from across the world have greater chance for price appreciation with lower input costs. Additionally, the evolution of multitude of online real estate portals has meant that people sitting abroad can now purchase property in India without actually having to do personal on-site visit. These portals features lakhs of verified realty listings and the users can get complete details of all properties/projects from the comfort of their home or on mobile apps.

• Rupee factor

The value of rupee is the other big reason why people from across the globe are aggressively investing in Indian realty market. The value of 1 USD is equal to nearly 64 rupees, while 1 Australian dollar is nearly 50 rupees and the Singapore dollar is not far behind valuing approximately 48 rupees. This means that people spending in foreign currency to buy flats in India will have to invest a lower sum.

• Favorable norms for foreign investors

The other big factor for India emerging as the hottest country for property investments in 2015 is the favorable foreign direct investment (FDI) norms. The Modi government has brought in several reform measures to relax FDI rules in construction sector. The central government has also eased the entry and exist norms which has led to a flurry of offshore money in the country. Its trending FDI in realty sector!

• High demand for residential housing

The expected price appreciation is also one of the critical reasons why the country is attracting lot of investment in infrastructure domain. The realty prices across the country have appreciated more than 200% in the last 10 to 12 years. And looking at the current growth rate, most analysts believe that the prices in construction segment including residential, commercial, industrial as well as hospitality segment, will appreciate annually at the rate of 12% to 14% in the coming few decades. The government reform measures such as building 100 smart cities, housing for all by 2022, constructing new highways, roads, rail tracks, ports and airports will go a long way in complementing the growth. In fact, as per the recent news, the market size of Indian real estate is all set to touch 180 billion USD by 2020.

This is a guest post by Rajveer Das

Mahindra World City - Mahindra World City, Chennai India’s first Gold Certified Integrated Business City

“Transforming urban landscapes by creating sustainable communities“– has been the mission of Mahindra Lifespace Development Limited.

Mahindra Lifespace Developers Ltd. - the real estate and infrastructure development business of the $16. 5 billion Mahindra Group, is a leader in sustainable urban development, through the creation of residential and integrated large format developments across nine Indian cities - Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Jaipur, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. The Company’s residential & commercial development footprint includes over 0.8 million sq. m. (8.3 million sq ft.) of completed projects and over 1.0 million sq. m. (11.3 million sq. ft.) of ongoing and forthcoming projects.

Mahindra World Cities pioneered the concept of integrated cities designed to create a balance between Life, Living and Livelihood. These integrated urban centers are located near existing metros and comprise SEZs, Industrial Parks, Retail and Social Infrastructure.

Promoted in a Public Private Partnership by the Mahindra Group and TIDCO (A Govt. of Tamil Nadu Undertaking), Mahindra World City surpasses the conventional definition of a business space - it is a business eco-system, carefully linked and integrated to function with efficiency. Mahindra World City, Chennai is India’s first integrated City and Corporate India’s first operational SEZ.

Mahindra World Cities are serving as hotbeds of industrialization by attracting foreign businesses and providing Indian companies the environment to export, at the same time they are providing windows of opportunities to local economies. With exports generated in excess of USD 1 billion in FY 2013-14, our cities also focus on integrated modern living.

Etching its name on India’s business map, Mahindra World City Chennai, has attracted corporate giants such as BMW, B.Braun, Capgemini, Holiday Inn Express, Infosys, Ingersoll Rand, Lincoln Electric, Parker Hannifin, Renault-Nissan, Tesa SE, Federal Mogul, Fujitec, NTN Corporation, Timken, TVS Group of Companies and Wipro among others.

Planned as a single point destination for domestic and global companies, Mahindra World Cities include Special Economic Zones and Domestic Tariff Areas. At full stage of development, it envisions to generate direct employment for more than 2, 00,000 people. The Lifestyle Zone, located alongside the Business Zone, offers residences, schools, medical centers, retail malls, business hotels, recreation and leisure facilities, and wide open green spaces for a clean, healthy environment. Bringing life to the city is an environment replete with culture, sports, music, festivals and a lot more.

Mahindra World City Chennai, located on NH45, spreads over 1550 acres and houses more than 60 blue-chip companies across IT, Auto, Fashion and Apparel, etc. MWC Chennai partners with the Indian Green Building Council to become India's first "green township." It is a partnership with the State Industrial Development Body, viz Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation Ltd (TIDCO).

Being one of India's fastest growing commercial and industrial centers, Chennai welcomes many global organizations to set up within its borders. Tamil Nadu, with a proactive state government and investment-friendly policies, has been at the forefront of attracting investments in India.

An international airport, two modern seaports and abundant skilled manpower, a huge talent pool of engineers, make Chennai the ideal destination of choice.

The Paranur Railway Station is the first station of its kind in India to be built in a Public-Private partnership. The Paranur station serves as a Gateway to Mahindra World City. Railways have become a preferred mode of transportation for a majority of the employees who currently reside at Chennai and the suburbs. Moreover, the railways serve as cost effective, efficient and comfortable mode of transport.

The residential and social amenities zone at Mahindra World City, New Chennai designed by M/s HOK, USA, won two international awards for the ‘Mahindra World City’ master plan from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA).

Mahindra World City: A Green township that has aspired to achieve balance between Life, Living and Livelihood

Mahindra Lifespace Developers Limited, the real estate and infrastructure development business of the $16.5 billion Mahindra Group, announced that Mahindra World City, its integrated city in Chennai, has been India’s first township to be awarded with Stage I certification under IGBC Green Townships.

It was evaluated on four environmental categories as defined by IGBC which included – Site Selection and Planning, Land Use Planning, Transportation Planning and Infrastructure Resource Management and Innovation in Design & Technology.

Mahindra World City Chennai is a city of many firsts in the journey of sustainability. It has been a pioneer in commissioning an Off-grid solar power plant in the State of Tamil Nadu. Located in The Canopy, the 75 kw Off Grid - Solar power plant, has the capacity to generate 1, 16,000 units of clean electrical energy annually, offsetting almost 60 tons of CO2.

India’s first ‘Green Homes’ developer and one of the first companies to receive the ‘Platinum-rated' green homes pre-certification from IGBC, the properties enhances a sense of well-being that translates into better health, its design maximizes sunlight and cross ventilation translating into lower energy consumption and it uses building materials that enhance temperature insulation.

Rainwater harvesting facilities for the park and recharge pits to collect rain water are imperatives within the city with the companies within Mahindra World City having rainwater harvesting facilities within their campuses. A network of storm water drains has been constructed along all the roads and the entire run-off water from surrounding water bodies and excess rain is conveyed through the storm water drains into the Kolavai Lake.

Mahindra World City, Chennai has developed the best in class infrastructure to create an international destination that attracts global investors and generates economic activity and livelihood opportunities.

The business zone is classified into a Domestic Tariff Area (DTA) and three sector-specific Special Economic Zones (SEZs) for IT (Services and Manufacturing), Auto Ancillaries and Apparel and Fashion Accessories.

The ethos of Mahindra World City has been creation of a holistic ecosystem which not only nourishes business but also makes quality living inside the city a reality. The master plan envisages development of Social and Commercial Infrastructure to integrate work and living. The current developments at Mahindra World City, Chennai include multi format housing, railway station, school, hospital, hotel, commercial centre, club among others.

With excellent living spaces, amidst clean, green, natural environs, Mahindra World City has been built and designed with one simple aim - to make life better for its residents. Spread across 285 acres, the zone has been well planned to provide living spaces supported by modern social infrastructure to over 6000 families across diverse segments.

MWC is located on National Highway 45, not far from the airport, seaport and has a railway station. Nearly 15,000 people use the train services every day.

Mahindra World City is a budding destination for retail, recreation and leisure products and services, providing the perfect setting as a city extraordinaire. The master plan includes a hotel, a hospital, multiplexes, shopping malls, outdoor sports and common recreation centers. The City is located in a rapidly developing industrial and residential belt, well connected by road and rail. The retail and social zone of the City will cater to the people living and working in both the World City and surrounding areas.

MWC Club offers endless options for recreation, leisure, sport and fun that are designed for everyone. Whether it's swimming and lazing in the pool or pampering your senses at the spa while others enjoy playing a game of tennis, it is here at MWC Club that you can truly maximize life and experience the best.

This is a promotional post by Mahindra World City Chennai. If you would like to promote your projects, write to us at nirrtigo@nirrtigo.com