Real Estate Boom: News Corp Backed PropTiger Acquires People Group’s Makaan.com

India’s leading digital real estate marketing and transactions services provider PropTiger.com has announced that it has acquired online property listings and classifieds player, Makaan.com. However, the amount of the deal is kept undisclosed.

The move will bring the two platforms together to create one stop comprehensive online real estate platform to offer end-to-end services to home buyers, real estate developers, property brokers, banks and private equity investors.

Speaking on this acquisition, Dhruv Agarwala, Co-founder & CEO, PropTiger.com said,

Together, PropTiger and Makaan will provide home buyers with a powerful online real estate platform to guide them through the early stages of home search and identification and all the way until they have the keys to their dream home.

“The fully assisted home buying experience will include being able to shortlist the right set of homes from a wide array of listings online, and then having a personalized service that helps with site visits, price negotiations, documentation, home financing, registration and post sales services”, he added.

Proptiger.com also provides consulting and data services for institutions, such as real estate developers, private equity investors and banks, in order to help them make better decisions using the enormous real estate data and customer insights it collects daily.

Prior to this Noida-based Proptiger.com had acquired digital interaction design company, Out of Box Interaction (OoBI). Besides, media baron Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp had also picked up 25% stake in Singapore’s Elara Technologies, which owns the Indian real estate website, PropTiger.com for $30 Mn. The platform is backed by heavy weight venture firms like SAIF Partners, Accel Partners and Horizen Ventures. So far, PropTiger has sold around 12,000 homes worth $1.2 Bn.

Founded by entrepreneur and investor Anupam Mittal, Makaan.com, offers diverse array of services for home owners & buyers, investors, property brokers and real estate developers.

It has around 200,000 active property listings and connectivity with 40,000 brokers in 50 Indian cities. Besides, 40% of Makaan’s traffic comes from mobile, which is the fastest growing gateway to Internet for users in India.

“This transaction will help shape the future of the real estate ecosystem in India. During the past few years, India’s home-buyers have embraced digital platforms in a big way. Starting by creating the first and only full-stack property solution, the combination of Makaan.com and Proptiger is set to accelerate customer focused innovations dramatically,” said Anupam.

According to property consultant Cushman & Wakefield, Indian real estate market is estimated to reach $180 Bn by 2020. 99acres, MagicBricks, Commonfloor, Indiaproperty are the few players who are dominating the online real estate sector in the country.