Now go beyond just searching to buy your dream house online

Purchasing home online initially seemed to be a far-fetched idea, but off late this has gained great traction as buyers are now carrying out multi-crore transactions in Internet-based real estate industry.

Recently, a Mumbai resident spent Rs 4.5 crore to book a 4 BHK apartment at The Promont, Bangalore with Tata Housing online. The real estate firm sold another luxury unit in its project called Myst in Kasauli to an NRI customer for Rs 5.5 crore online, making it India's largest transaction in the online space.

Even India’s major e-tailer Snapdeal sold a Tata Housing unit for Rs 1.1 crore early this month within hours of commencing the sale. Later, the Delhi-based online marketplace Snapdeal claimed that this was its highest online transaction and the company sees. It further asserted that the frequency of such transactions is moving beyond a crore on its site.

"The Rs 5.5-crore transaction is the highest ever in the Indian online space. We have tied up with Snapdeal .com and Housing.com to sell our premium and value housing units,” a senior Tata Housing official told TOI.

He further added that “Tata Housing has sold over 1,500 units online, accounting for 25% of Rs 1,100-crore sales and expects that online sales will account for over 40% of revenues in the coming years with the tremendous growth of e-commerce."

Apart from Tata Housing, other realty players like DLF, Sobha Developers, Godrej Properties, Mantri Developers and Purvankara are following suit to tie up with online retailers to grab a slice of the $45-billion organised property market. According to a Tata Housing spokesperson, a virtual walk-through the property in order to check out the neighbourhood is helping home-seekers to make informed decisions. He further added, “We offer premium properties online that are not available offline to get the customer's attention." (Image: Thinkstock)