Tata Housing launches two projects on GOSF

About 300-400 deals up for grab on realty portals

Google’s Great Online Shopping Festival (GOSF) has become a launchpad for two projects of real estate firm Tata Housing — a luxury project in Bengaluru and an affordable housing project in Mumbai. Experts say this would soon make online the preferred medium of buying a house.

The Cascades, the luxury project in Bengaluru, is spread over five acres, will have 75 independent house at Rs 3.5 crore. The total cost of the project is about Rs 150 crore. In another project of Tata Housing subsidiary — Tata Value Homes in Boisar, Mumbai, the prices of houses will start at Rs 16 lakh. Both the projects are being sold exclusively during GOSF. The company also has schemes for seven other projects across India.

A house can be booked by paying Rs 20,000-50,000 on Tata’s units while others are offering many freebies and a-sqft discounts to lure customers.

At least 300-400 schemes/offers are available on various real estate portals such as 99acres.com, Magicbricks.com, Commonfloor.com, Makaan.com, amongst others. The developers participating in the GOSF include Unitech, Raheja, Puravankara, Mahindra Lifespaces,  VBHC, Ashiana, Godrej Properties, Artha and Brigade, among others.

Even housing loan providers such as HDFC Home Loans, Tata Capital has various offers going on during the three day festival.

Through the online medium, Tata Housing has sold over 700 units with a value of about Rs 400 crore and has been selling one house every two days through this medium, company's managing director and CEO Brotin Banerjee had said earlier in an interview to Business Standard. It has also entered into an exclusive arrangement for selling homes on Snapdeal.com.

"We have seen 70 per cent of our customers coming from the online medium and we strongly believe online to emerge as a preferred route of buying real estate in near future. We are in the process of changing the way in which real estate was sold. We expect online to emerge as one of the fastest growing channels for sale of real estate sales in near future. Besides, we are aiming to create new and innovative ways to reach out to the target audience," Banerjee said.

Sumeet Singh, Senior Vice President- Marketing, Corporate Communication and Alliances, Info Edge (which owns 99acres.com) said, "There is a big shift in consumer buying behavior. Consumers today are more inclined towards shopping online. This platform will provide exciting and exclusive deals, which will not be available otherwise. Each deal has its respective validity period which in some cases will extend beyond the three days to a week or ten days."

The realty sector has been witnessing declining sales in the last few years with high inventory. Developers have been hard pressed on funds and there have been unending delays in deliveries in many residential projects. With the new government at the Centre, the experts are hoping for a revival of the sector in the next 6-12 months.