Tanuj Shori, CEO and
Founder at Square Yards, had a candid chat with RealtyNXT founder Kritika Singh Rawat. He had some interesting insights to share about Square Yards growth and journey over the years. The company got into the Indian market at a time when fragmentation, according to Shori, was at ludicrous levels. Nowhere in the world did the biggest real estate developer have only 1% of market share or the biggest distributor have just 0.2% market share.
Square Yards faced challenges at the sector-level including professionalism of counter-parties, non-transparency of data, unregulated nature of the sector, etc. Challenges at the execution level were also considerable and Shori shared how the organization now puts more importance on execution above ideas which are only smaller parts of the entire equation. Being the first Indian real estate startup to swiftly expand globally, Square Yards has managed to garner sizable growth from markets like Australia, Canada and particularly the Gulf.
Shori stated that a majority of the companys global push has been accidental and opportunity-driven. The Gulf has always been a key NRI market and even before COVID-19 broke out, Square Yards had realized that Dubai, for instance, has a local market almost similar to Mumbai or Delhi with some unique variables, for instance the primary market is stronger than the secondary market in the Gulf. The replication of dos and donts from the Indian realty market led to success in the Gulf for the brand and soon it started expanding into other markets.
Over the last 12-18 months, according to Shori, global markets have been immensely profitable for Square Yards. Shori feels that Square Yards competes with multiple players at every stage of the real estate value chain since there is no single player covering the entire ecosystem apart from his company as of today. From real estate brokerage, mortgage (Indias biggest brokerage in this segment), rentals, property management, SaaS and a lot more, Square Yards covers the whole process from property search to post-sales, property management and so on. From 99 Acres to Salesforce, it competes with innumerable players at various junctures of this ecosystem play.
In terms of market share, while Square Yards had 3-3 ½ % of the Indian real estate market prior to COVID-19, it has scaled up market share to a whopping 25% over the last four months (post COVID-19). This effectively means 1 out of every 4 property transactions in India happened on Square Yards. This phenomenal run rate has been made possible due to the emphasis on cutting-edge technology, rapid evolution, a skilled team and of course, the unmistakable recipe for success- hard work
Watch the full interview here