Real estate portals in India are on a roll, despite the relative slump in the market. Traffic and listings have been rising exponentially, and while mid-sized, moderately priced properties are the staple on sites like 99acres.com, indiaproperty.com and magicbricks.com, increasingly, high-end properties located in plush areas of Delhi and Mumbai are also being listed.
Do an advanced search on any of these portals for apartments, independent houses, farmhouses, put in Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million) and above as the price criterion, and note the responses you get.
There's a three-bedroom house in Vasant Vihar with Rs 48 crore (Rs 480 million) as listed price, an apartment on Peddar Road, Mumbai going for Rs 30 crore (Rs 300 million), a farmhouse on 2.75 acres at Radhe Mohan Drive in Chhatarpur, Delhi priced Rs 18 crore (Rs 180 million), and many more.
Mostly, these are broker listings. One of them, S K Joshi of Sterling Estates, Lajpat Nagar, has been listing properties costing above Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million) on the web for the past two years.
"Thirty-40 per cent of my business now comes from the Net. I've got calls from NRIs, who've looked up a property on the Net." Joshi is now trying to broker a deal for a 50,000 sq ft warehouse for a top company, again a contact resulting from his portal listing.
And it is not just the brokers, developers too are using these portals seriously --