Need home? Install app

After chatting apps and shopping apps, apps to find homes are now flooding mobile play stores. Also accessible as e-portals, these suave, smart and technology-driven platforms have made seeking accommodation in big cities available at the click of a button ­ in most cases, weeding out the often unscrupulous middleman.
In Hyderabad, their preferred choice of destination is the expanding IT corridor.In view of the mass migration of young professionals to the Hi-Tec City-Kondapur-Gachbowli stretch, these new-age housing networks have started making inroads into this market. Be it Nestaway or Grabhouse ­ both Bengaluru-based ­ each have found a sizeable section of takers for their massive database of paying guest individual accommodation services. Such is the demand that Zenify.in, also from India's startup hub, is planning to set shop here within the next nine to 12 months.
Here's how they work: a tenant searches for properties on these apps as per her/his requirement and the administrators help them land one. There's no hassle of a physical visit, rental agreement and, in some cases, even maintenance of property post shifting.Everything is taken care of by the service provider, albeit for a fee.
“With the traditional practice there were two problems: discovery (finding the right home) and trust (in broker and owner). We have addressed both efficiently.We take guarantee of the quality of house on offer ­ all furnished and in prime locations ­ and the credentials of the owners. After you move in, even the maintenance works are facilitated by us,“ said Amarendra Sahu, co-founder and CEO of Nestaway, which made a foray into Hyderabad's western belt in January 2015. At present, it has 500 properties that house 1,200 to 1,500 working professionals.While the service is free for tenants, owners pay 12.5% of rent per month to the team.
“I moved into a Nestaway apartment in March this year and the experience has been extremely pleasant. Right from looking for the property to getting things fixed, it's all very smooth,“ said Khammam resident Mounika Devaki, who shares a 3BHK with four others in Kondapur.
Ditto, marketing executive Avinash Dunna, who has been availing of Grabhouse's PG facilities for three months now. The young professional from Siddipet says he couldn't have asked for more ­ especially because of the hassle he avoided of touring the town to find the right accommodation.
“Our USP is that we do not work with real estate agents. Listings are directly done by owners and we are involved right from the time tenants start their search to the time they move in,“ said Pankhuri Shrivastava, co-founder and CMO of the firm that has a mammoth network of 1,500 PGs, largely in hitech Hyderabad.
“We collect comprehensive data about these PGs ­ how safe they are, what kind of rooms are on offer, what furnishing, what kind of food ­ everything. This improves the quality of the online platform,“ she added.
That the western corridor of Hyderabad is a lucrative business centre is something Zenify's (Spanish word meaning: delivering peace of mind) CEO and co-founder, Sudarshan Purohit, also agrees with. “Since most of the churn is happening there, the requirement is high. We hope to reach there soon,“ he said, adding how infusing technology into the housing sector works to the advantage of both owner and tenant.
“Because from the time we are given exclusive access to a house, all property management issues are handled by us. While the owner doesn't need to bother about haggling over rent, the tenant doesn't need to fear about losing the security deposit,“ Purohit explained.
The optimism among this young lot of entrepreneurs, of course, isn't shared by the older lot of realtors, who feel that such property portals cannot replace the age-old profession of real estate brokerage. “Years of experience and knowing the pulse of realty is what makes a good property advisor. Most tech-based portals, on the other hand, are still trying to figure out what they should be doing after spending crores. Also, would you go to a technician when you have a heart problem or a doctor? I think you have your answer there,“ said Shivender Singh, partner with Goodwill Coordinators, a popular real estate consultancy firm in Hyderabad.