Housing.com to invest Rs 35 cr in next 4 months on branding

News Corp-backed Housing.com will invest USD 5 million (around Rs 35 crore) by March next year on branding and promotion as it seeks to increase customer base on its platform, a top company official said.

In January 2017, Singapore-based Elara Technologies, which owns PropTiger.com and Makaan.com, acquired Housing.com -- a start-up founded in 2012 by around dozen IIT graduates -- in a major consolidation in the Indian online real estate business.

"It's now close to two years from the date of merger with Housing.com. The integration process is complete and has gone well.

"The Housing brand has always been very popular and we believe that this is the right time for us to launch a fresh brand campaign to further build recall and affinity for the brand," said Dhruv Agarwala, who is CEO of all the three brands -- PropTiger, Housing and Makaan.

Housing.com has roped in film stars Vicky Kaushal and Kiara Advani for its new TV commercial, which will showcase smart search technology offered by the platform. The campaign, targeting millennials especially women, will be run across media platforms.

"We will be spending about USD 5 million (around Rs 35 crore) over the next four months in this brand campaign," Agarwala told PTI.

After the merger, he said Housing.com re-launched rentals and broker monetisation to boost topline.

"Our revenue grew by 125 per cent in FY 2017-18 and we have already achieved a year-on-year growth of 95 per cent in this fiscal. Our listings on the platform in H1 of FY19, have shown a robust growth at 90 per cent and now stand at 8 lakh," Agarwala said.

Housing.com earns revenues from advertisements placed by developers, brokers and home owners as well as through marketing tools like 3D visualisation and augmented reality, used by builders.

It mainly competes with 99acres.com, Magicbricks.com and Quikr in this online property classified space.