AMU, IIT alumni’s website for Muslims hunting homes gets 1 lakh visitors

The website, marketed as ‘India’s first Muslim housing portal’, underlines that “our key customer base belongs to Muslim community as we realise that the problems faced by the community in buying and renting of properties are unique and still unresolved”.

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The founders list the parameters “that are unique to Muslims while buying or renting a property” such as “inclination to reside in a Muslim dominated area”, “proximity to a mosque”, “availability of only high-end deals”, and “lesser availability of bank credit”.

Mohammad Junaid Siddiqui, one of the founders of the website, said: “Be it the middle class or the elite, the Muslim population finds house-hunting a cumbersome task. Be it the National Capital Region or Mumbai, it is difficult for a Muslim to find a house outside a Muslim ghetto.”

He said as Old Boys of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), he and others would discussed this issue at their meets and decided to create such a website.

“Do Muslim-dominated areas remain the only option for Muslims? What if they want to live somewhere else? Do they have the option of skipping the stereotype? It is difficult to come to terms with the fact that they are turned down irrespective of the paying capacity,” Junaid said.

The website, however, allows anyone — of any religion — to list their house for rent or sale.

While the role of other founders is now limited to suggestions and executive decisions, Junaid maintains the website from New Delhi along with three employees who promote the website and market it on social media.

Masood Pervez Khan, another founder and advocate with the Delhi High Court, said “the idea was to address the problem of discrimination faced by Muslims.” Currently, he gives his advice on legal matters.

Ranchi-based Aftab Alam, who completed an MBA from AMU, said “we wanted to help the community in finding homes; at the same time, we realised the importance of the Internet, so we created this website.”

They still have a long way to go. “About eight months ago,” recalled Hasan Ali, a B.Tech from AMU and and an alumnus of IIT, Bombay, “I was looking for a house in Lower Parel in Mumbai, where my office is, but I couldn’t get a home and was turned away.” In 2013, he had faced the same problem while in Delhi.

According to Junaid, so far, about 2,000 people have registered themselves with the website. IT expert Rakshit Tandon said 1 lakh hits and 2,000 registrations in 15 months was “a decent figure”. Aniket Saxena, who leads the Aam Aadmi Party’s IT and social media cell for Uttar Pradesh, agreed these figures were “sufficient”.

Junaid pointed out that 30 per cent were recurring visitors to the website: “Most of our traffic comes from Delhi, followed by Mumbai and then Riyadh. Then we have visitors from Noida, Bangalore, Pune and Jeddah.”
He is not giving up. His next plan is a job portal, keeping the focus on Muslims.