Pick your dream home on Net
Real estate
By Vasu

ARE you thinking of buying or renting a house? Get set.You will have to trudge through all the dingy cubbyholes occupied by property dealers whose rating or professional credibility can only be assessed by their physical appearance in the absence of any registration or rating norms. There will be endless debates on the relative merits of similar houses while traversing the city and suburbs looking for a house to rent. In the end, one has to haggle over variations like rent and property prices, payment schedules and advance money before clinching the dream home.

All this may belong to the previous millenium soon with the arrival of real estate trading on the Internet. Though prominent builders and developers in India have had web site for long, they concentrate more on the working and details of their organisations than offer real estate opportunities for the house hunter. A website, iPlus (www.indiaproperties.com), promoted by the U.S.A-based White Flint Venture group may change the way real estate transactions have taken place till now.

Real estate in India is characterised by poor information flow, inefficient pricing and poor representation. "Both buyers and sellers often confused as to whether the broker is acting for them or the opposition", says Harry Baweja, an NRI from Canada who has set up home in Mohali. "Initially I would ask brokers to show me the photographs and profiles of prospective sites but realised that this was not the method here," he adds.

Naresh Malkani, the country head of iPlus and a licensed real estate broker in the USA, says, " iPlus, which is an Interactive Property Listing and Utility Service provider, has at present over 150 listings. Owners, who wish to sell their holdings or their brokers, can list properties for a fee. Buyers or their brokers can then access the site and filter out unwanted properties and target specific homes thus saving on house hunting time. But will this method work here where real estate transactions (almost always) include a hidden component? Will it really serve as a real estate exchange and make brokers redundant besides cutting down on transaction costs?

According to Malkani, the main advantage is that the seller does not go through several brokers and this method does serve to eliminate the long chain of dealers who often get involved in a single deal. The buyer or seller just retains one person to represent his interest and take care of the paperwork connected with transfer, registration etc. after targeting property through the Net. Also, since several similar comparable properties will be available at one glance, pricing be-comes more regular and competitive with the buyer or buyers determining the rate for a property. Comparable properties will also help in setting a price range, he adds.

Searching on predetermined criteria like agricultural land, apartment, house, city, sub-city, price and area also help clearly define and identify suitable properties according to the required price range. For a nominal fee the site lets people list property for a period of 90 days following which if it remains unsold, the listing can also extended further for a year.

In case the seller wishes to keep the identity of his property a secret, the apartment or house number is not mentioned and only a description of the property along with the expected price, accommodation etc are detailed. Keeping the cash component of deals in mind even properties giving a range of price and some without the price are accepted for listing. If more such sites come up and the listings attain critical mass the day is not far when NRIs scouting property in Punjab would be asked to click the mouse when they ask for photographs of prospective houses.

Another aid to regularising the rent and rate slabs for real estate is the property rating instrument which will help house hunters assess property they are investing in. The National Real Estate Development Council (Naredco) is framing the index,which is expected to be finalised next month. The rating is being designed to safeguard consumer interests and will use parameters like land titles, costing, approvals from local authorities, time frame for completion, external development, property management, construction specifications, liabilities and defaults to assess a property.

The main organizations involved in the framing of the index are the Naredco, the National housing Bank, Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) and the Department of Consumer Affairs. Hoping that this index becomes statutory, a prospective buyer says, "Only such a measure will help an owner-buyer in determining the real worth of a property since all developers tend to overrate and inflate costs". Construction specifications are especially difficult for an amateur to assess. Price, based on super area instead of the net useful area within an apartment, is the most commonly used ploy to raise the price of a built- up flat.

Other means are charging for fire protection systems which are mandatory in high rises, charging for community centers, medical complexes, creche and other essential services which are normally mandatory as per local area bye laws. Index ratings and Internet listings maybe too premature too be of much relevance to local buyers today but a few years down the line will become the major factor in selecting one’s dream home.