Heard of Proptech yet? The real estate buzzword is back in the news but with heightened relevance this time. It stands for all the companies that are taking on the real estate industry to make it better, spurred by an ever-changing digital landscape and new consumption patterns. It is still a new trend in India, and its scope will surely evolve as time goes by.
In the existing real estate, numerous startups are lined up to eliminate and replace industry professionals. In new construction on the other hand, startups mostly operate as middlemen or as suppliers of hi-tech tools for developers. For the time being, that is. Furthermore, new trends are emerging across all sectors of the real estate industry: co-working is disrupting the office space sector, co-living is offering new alternatives in residential real estate, crowdfunding is reshaping new construction and real estate investing, and home swapping is growing increasingly popular for seasonal rentals. Many new professions such as drone pilots, virtual home staging specialists or data aggregators have also appeared alongside traditional real estate industry jobs. And you can bet that every five minutes new ideas are being floated that will reinvent all or part of the real estate industry.
These dynamics are prompting entrepreneurs and innovators to reflect on various aspects of the industry and to create startups addressing highly specific needs.
We have narrowed down the startups which are disrupting the real estate sector with the concept of fractional ownership.
Definite
Definite is an innovative startup in the prop-tech space that provides fractional real estate ownership to investors in commercial real estate. The company’s state-of-the-art platform helps people get access to industry experts, informed by decades of CRE experience and proprietary methodologies. Incepted in 2016, Definite is a customer-centric company that focuses on maximizing the returns of the investors. It boasts a user-friendly dashboard and works thoroughly on examining each deal while using conservative financial models.
hBits
hBits is a fractional ownership platform that lets users own already rented commercial real estate for as little as ₹25 lakhs with significant yields. Incepted in 2019, hBits is the most experienced and leading fractional ownership platform in the country, working at the intersection of real estate and technology. The properties listed on hBits are pre-leased and thereby categorized as Grade A assets.
Strata
Strata, a Bengaluru-based real-estate investment tech. Strata has been able to create a simple, low-cost way for anyone to access real estate’s historically consistent and exceptional return. The alternate real estate asset class has been the playground for largely institutional investors. With Strata, individual investors can now access real estate investing without needing to invest large sums of money.
Psye
Bengaluru-based Pyse founded in 2020, it allows retail investors to invest in sustainable energy projects, at lower ticket sizes. The app and web-based investment platform, Pyse helps mom-and-pop investors put their money in sustainable projects that create social and environmental impacts. Pyse offers retail investors the option to make fractional investments, starting at Rs 50,000, making it more affordable and attractive to those who can’t invest big sums of money.
