A Quick Guide to Online Home Buying in India

Buying property online is now very much a ‘new normal’ process. Prospective homebuyers who earlier might have been unaware of how to buy a house online are now increasingly opening up to the idea of not just researching apartments, but also completing the home buying process, entirely digitally. The real estate sector after Covid-19 in India has in parallel made significant strides towards ensuring digital accessibility and customer convenience. Select future-focused developers have successfully rehauled the sales process to enable end-to-end online selling of homes.

In 2020, for the first time in the sector’s history, a residential project (in MMR) was successfully launched via a zero-touch, immersive, mobile platform that helped customers conclude the sales process entirely online, from the comfort of their homes. There were no face-to-face meetings or site visits; these were replaced by fully contactless transaction infrastructure, virtual tours and meetings, online selection of apartments, and digital documentation and payments. Homebuyers could also include their friends and family in the decision-making process, even when they were located in different cities. Moreover, record low home loan interest rates and stamp duty rates (in states like Maharashtra) have since then prompted many undecided customers to move forward to the purchase stage.

This is indeed one of the best times to invest in property and here are a few practical do’s and don’ts for buying a home online:

1. Choose only reputed platforms for research. This is especially true in the case of investments by NRIs.
2. Do not be drawn to grand online discounts for their sake alone. Ensure you are investing in a trusted real estate brand with a good track record.
3. If you do decide to go for an offer, check to ensure that the deal meets your specific financial requirements.
4. Ensure thorough due diligence of all property-related documents.
5. Read up on the project on your state’s RERA website!