Snapdeal will now sell affordable homes too!

In one of the latest developments in the real estate market, e-commerce giant Snapdeal has entered into a partnership with Tata Value homes, an affordable housing company. One could expect to see apartments from Tata Value homes, a 100% subsidiary of Tata Housing Development Co, now being listed on Snapdeal.

This is one of a kind venture in which an e-commerce company has tied up with a real estate venture. This could now open the gates for other property-focused online ventures that also sell real estate, such as CommonFloor, 99Acres and MagicBricks to join Snapdeal in the new endeavor.

Kunal Bahl, cofounder and chief executive, Snapdeal, says , “We saw an opportunity to provide to our customers the ability to buy great houses at great prices from a quality company like Tata Value Homes, and we went for it.”

By 2020, the real estate market is estimated to touch the likes of 180 million (over Rs 11 lakh Crores) . Five years down the line, in the residential property alone, the top 8 residential cities in the country would see an additional demand of 2.8 million units according to property consultant Cushman & Wakefield.

Bangalore-based CommonFloor raised Rs 64 crore from marquee venture capital investors Tiger Global and Accel Partners in January earlier this year, while Housing.com raised $18 million in April, in a round led by Helion Venture Advisors.

The financial terms of the partnership are yet to be disclosed. Both Snapdeal’s Bahl and Tata Value Homes have refused to disclose the same.

“Consumers trust our platform, and if something goes wrong, we will fix it,” said Bahl.

This news seems to come pretty close to the recent media reports stating that Ratan Tata,  chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, was close to investing in New Delhi-based Snapdeal in his personal capacity, a transaction that could also see of the company’s early-stage investors exit.

The potential buyers are charged a minimum booking fee of Rs 30,000, once they have selected from the listings of over 1000 apartment units which Tata housing is looking to sell on the Snapdeal platform.

“The partnership with Snapdeal gives us reach. It gives us the opportunity to sell more homes at affordable prices, given the paucity in the country,” said Pawan Sarda, head – marketing at Tata Value Homes.

In order to attract more sales, Tata value homes will also pay Snapdeal customers Rs 10,000 per month, for a period of 12 months, on booking any of its properties listed on the e-commerce website.

This partnership, however, would not prevent the regular bookings for a property on the real estate company’s website.

The company currently has listings for the property across five major cities as of now which include Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune and Ahmedabad.

It is interesting to note that this news comes almost immediately after Ratan Tata’s investment in the company.