Sangeet Aggarwal is the Head of Product and Design at Housing.com, Proptiger.com, and Makaan.com. An IIT graduate and ex-entrepreneur with 10+ years of experience leading product and technology, Sangeet is currently heading the product strategy for REA India group.
No aspect of our lives is untouched by technology. And, it is changing everything for the better, including home-buying experiences, with technology disrupting the consumer experience in home search, discovery, and everything related to property.
In the past couple of years, the Housing.com app has seen disproportionate growth, with the pandemic prompting more and more property seekers to switch to online channels. Users now prefer apps due to their faster speed and better search experience. Looking to have better control over their search, consumers today want technology-driven efficient marketplaces that understand their requirements like an expert. We have invested in various initiatives helping Housing.com become the preferred choice for our customers”
End to End Assistance: Growing internet adoption and rapid urbanization have dramatically shifted a major share of the home search to online. While sellers and owners could easily list their property on our platform, buyers could apply relevant filters and quickly get multiple property options. Using our app, users could quickly view the neighborhood vicinity and details like schools, hospitals, etc., on the map, chat with sellers to get more property details, and also save their searches to receive property alerts.
In line with our goal to be a one-stop solution for all your needs related to home, Housing now offers other value add services like paying rent, rent agreement, insurance, etc., to give an all-round user experience spanning beyond the search.
Virtual tours: The Covid-19 pandemic has established the value of virtual tours by enabling remote viewing from the comfort of the user’s household. Virtual viewing also eases the sales process for sellers by giving them an option to show the same home to multiple buyers simultaneously. Even now, many of our users use our 3D tour and video call feature to do virtual site visits before shortlisting options. Our proprietary 3D tour product makes it possible to get an immersive experience of the property without doing a site visit
Property Data insight: Home buying is a once-in-a-lifetime decision for many buyers which means byers need multiple data points to make the right decision. We at Housing are leveraging data and AI (Artificial Intelligence) to provide various insights like price trends, registration data, verified neighborhood and apartment reviews, neighborhood information, etc., to help users make an informed decision
Digital contracts and blockchain: We are sitting at the cusp of another cycle of innovation where blockchain could be a game changer eliminating the inefficiencies in the home transaction journey. We could now have clear ownership and chain of transaction eliminating most of the information asymmetry leading to transparency and reducing the risk of fraud. These digital records could also be broken into smaller parts paving the way for part ownership, prop-fintech, etc. This opens avenues for a lot of innovation in the sector further enriching the home search journey.
As we enter the next phase of development, we would continue to work towards our vision — Change the way consumers experience property. In this pursuit, we are consistently looking for newer technologies that help us make the user experience better for our customers.