In an inspirational development for India Inc. which is battling the impact of the nationwide lockdown owing to the COVID-19 outbreak, leading property brokerage firm Square Yards has sold 400 plus housing units in the last 10 days. In spite of the lockdown, the Reliance Group (led by Anil Ambani) and Times Group backed Square Yards has sold real estate exceeding Rs. 200 crore.
Square Yards has also launched its digital platform for facilitating end-to-end transactions in real estate. The company has confirmed sales figures of 400 plus housing units in the last 10 days including 100 units sold on the 31st of March, 2020. The deployment of the platform has been accelerated since the commencement of the lockdown. CEO Tanuj Shori has also stated that 420 units were sold with overall value ranging between Rs. 200-250 crore.
50% of sales figures were attributed to NRI (non resident Indian) buyers according to Shori who also added that housing projects by Godrej Properties in Pune and Delhi-NCR had the maximum contributions to sales volumes. Square Yards’ digital platform helps in automating the entire real estate transaction process, enabling virtual tours and 3D walkthroughs online in addition to deploying a real-time inventory blocking engine that is integrated with payment gateways. There is also a post-sales module for online application submission with digital signatures.
The private equity division of the Reliance Group had invested approximately $12 million in the company back in November, 2016. Square Yards also raised Rs. 175 crore or roughly $25 million in September last year via preferential issue of equity shares to investors which included the Times Group. The company has raised $50 million in equity and more than $25 million in debt financing till date and started its journey in the year 2014. Square Yards posted revenues of Rs. 220 crore for FY2018-19.
Square Yards is a technology-enabled, global real estate aggregator and India’s largest player for primary residential real estate. It’s subsidiary Square Capital is one of the largest marketplace for secured mortgages in India. Square Yards platform offers an integrated consumer experience & covers the full real-estate journey from search, discovery to research, transactions, home loans and post-sales service – fully integrating buyers to an extensive network of 500+ partner real estate developers, and 90+ banks & NBFCs. Square Yards is led by accomplished professionals, ex-bankers, and Ivy school alumni and is backed by the competence of more than 2500 employees in 30 cities and ten countries.