Makaan November 14, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Real Estate , 2commentsAnother real-estate site for Indians. Makaan is owned by People Interactive (India) Pvt Ltd, which owns several web portals like Fropper, Mauj, Astrolife and Shaadi.
Apart from the very relevant domain name, I’m not impressed one bit. It’s another run-of-the-mill property website, with a very mundane user interface. They have more content than the rest of crowd, but that probably has more to do with the big backing of People Group than actual user participation. Their business model is online advertising (surprise!), posting and searching is free for registered users.
This is probably the reason why traditional in-person Indian industries like real-estate wont be revolutionized by internet, yet. Connecting buyers and sellers is just one piece of the puzzle- the real value proposition is in simplifying the whole experience, which would mean taking part in the actual transaction in some way. Startups like Zillow and Redfin are doing this by providing price estimates, closing the deal etc. Of course to enable that, we’d need a industry body like NAR running a common repository like MLS in an impartial way. Till that happens, modernization of real-estate industry in India is just smoke and mirrors.
MagicBricks October 29, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Real Estate , add a commentMagicBricks is the online real-estate portal of Indiatimes, which is run by one of the largest media and entertainment conglomerate in India, The Times Group.
So it’s got some heavy backing- which probably explains plenty of content, television advertising and some nifty functionality like GPS based mobile application that allow users to search for real estate listings on the move. But for all that money, it’s got a very average looking website and a pathetic logo. The whole interface is a mix of different fonts, member company logos, and awfully crowded text.
Nevertheless, in a market with billions of potential users I guess content is king, not presentation. At least for now. Overall, if you need to get some rich content for Indian real-estate, take two aspirins and head to MagicBricks.
IndiaProperties June 27, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Real Estate , add a commentInitially I was going to file IndiaProperties in the ‘Unusable Real-Estate Sites‘ list, but had second thoughts.
Although it has flashing/scrolling graphics, just like its unusable peers (see my older post about ‘Hallmarks of an average Indian website‘), the site is seems more established than others. The compete.com data is rough but still shows about 1,000 visitors per month.
It’s a property listing service, so business model is overall about the sellers paying for their time-bound posting, and buyers browsing for free. The content seems to be existing (to say the least).I could find at least one listing for Ajmer, Glubarga and Almora each (that amounts to something, right? 
).
Anyway. It’s another startup focusing on a MLS type service for India’s property market. They have a good domain name and a decent site, so I’d say they have a better chance of actually becoming a viable service long-term.
Update (Oct 2007): Seems like IndiaProperties is gaining some ground. They recently announced a tie-up with Hirco, an arm of the Niranjan Hiranandani group, to undertake online direct marketing of properties in Chennai.
The Unusable Real-Estate Sites March 30, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Real Estate , 8commentsIf you were observing the Real-Estate related online market in India recently, get ready for the default feature of India and everything Indian- overcrowding.
I was naive enough to think that I’ll write about the online real-estate sites focusing on India. How many could there be? 5? 10??? I’m in shock, setting up online property related websites has caught on like common cold. Everybody (and their brother) has one:
- PropertiesBazaar
- IndiaPlot
- PremisesIndia
- PropertyGalaxy
- PropertyZones
- PropMart
- RealEstatemore
- RealAcres
… the list goes on and on. Besides the fact that they are focused on Indian real-estate market, one more aspect is common between all these sites- minimal attention to usability
. The content and widgets are all crammed into the homepage, and there is at least 1 graphic that is craving for your attention by blinking or scrolling or flashing. Geez. You would think that at least one web developer would have read some usability text (Refer to Jakob Nielsen’s excellent articles here and here).So I quit. I’ve decided to cover only the major players (Don’t ask me how I’ll figure out who is major). Hopefully, some of these minor players will die the natural death of premature startups (like Bindaazproperties apparently did. I had saved the link few weeks back, and by the time I got around to writing about them, the site was no more. RIP BindaazProperties.)
Disclaimer: I obviously know very little about the above sites and the stage of development they are in. Before someone takes offense to this post, try to read it from the perspective of an end-user on the web. 
If your site is not ready for prime time, keep it under wraps. Or put a “Beta” sign on it, at the very least.
Update: As one of the readers pointed out, BindaazProperties is functional now. So the example may be void, but the point still remains.
atOnePlace January 17, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Real Estate , 3commentsatOnePlace is an online real-estate market place, still in beta. The content is not rich at the moment (they have scattered listings from delhi, ahmedabad, kolkata etc but not many overall) and the site design is not the best.
One of my readers did post a comment saying she found their service very satisfactory. Lets get more input on that… feel free to leave a comment.
Update (Oct’07): Nimisha from atOnePlace invited us back again to look at the site once more (risky move, Nimisha 
). The site has more content now, for sure. More cities are included along with some useful features. As far as user interface goes, there is still some room for improvement. I’ll be my usual acerbic self and critique them here. First, the blinking (however slow) graphics need to go- no UI guideline advocates snatching user attention in that loud way. Second, make sure the basic navigation menu stands out and is easy to find- the ‘buy’ ’sell’ post..’ menu is one of the most feeble looking text on the current homepage. Third, homepage is an entry point, no need to have content for everything on there (developer gallery, disclosure text etc can easily be a part of a separate page…only a tiny link is needed on the homepage). Currently the homepage looks like a overload of information. Fourth and last, make sure the formatting is consistent! Nothing makes a site look more immature than uneven formatting. Everyone of us has done it when we were tech newbies. But when you see it on the web somewhere, it triggers a sub-conscious judgment of immature, newcomer presentation. For example, the “Find a Property” blue box is an unsightly medley of various fonts and uneven spacing. I could point out a few more, but then I’d have to charge atOnePlace for the service .
I know, I know… I’m a criticizing idiot, cranky Mr.know-it-all, etc, etc… Call me what you want, but you know that there is some truth to what I’m saying.
BharathRentals January 15, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Real Estate , add a commentIf you are looking for rentals (flat, paying guest, office, room mate etc) in major metro cities (Delhi/Mumbai/Hyderbad/Banglore are on the list) then BharathRentals is worth checking out.
The site design is clean- which is refreshing for a indian website. I remain a bit pessimistic about online real-estate sites for indian market, but the content here was better than expected. When I checked them out, they had around 2500 postings in all, which is not bad at all. Each lisiting has neat icons below it (about things like parking, amenities etc) and are readable (some even have pictures).
All in all, it has the signs of a good, usable site. Hope it catches on.
Update: As I researched it more, the parent company behind BharathRentals (AmTek Systems Inc., based out of Delaware - I couldnt find a website) has produced few other startups: BharatAutomobiles and BrahminsMatrimony. I’ve written about them here and here.
99acres January 13, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Real Estate , 8commentsIndian real-estate websites probably deserve to be a sub-section in my categories. I have been following enterants in this area, and 99acres is one of the big players. It was founded in August 2005 by Info Edge (India) Pvt. Ltd. Interestingly enough, Info Edge are the folks behind couple other major sites- naukri .com and jeevansaathi.com.
Any real-estate website is just as good as the content within it. None of the players can boast even a moderately useful listing content right now, but they are growing fast.
I cant give any positive feedback for a website’s user-interface if it has flashing icons left and right. 99acres has that problem. Web designers, if you are reading this, THAT IS NOT A GOOD DESIGN. Please stop flashing things on the homepage, it is very annoying.