By Apoorva Madhani
With technology and analytics-powered property discovery and financing, the online real estate business model is now evolving from vanilla digital classifieds to a more comprehensive transaction-enabling model. The online space is facilitating transactions between a home buyer and a developer, salvaging potential investors from the often-harrowing experiences that real estate transactions usually entail in India. While the industry is at an extremely nascent stage currently, SmartOwner is attempting to transform the marketplace for the better, redefining buyer experience in high-ticket transactions. Read on to know how.
Redefining buyer experience
SmartOwner claims to be “India’s largest marketplace for investors”, bringing together hundreds of individual investors and negotiating an institutional-grade deal with major developers on their behalf. The investors, therefore, end up with a lucrative rate of return, saving them the trouble of dealing with developers. Through this mechanism, it offers opportunities that are not available on the general market. It is this exclusivity that sets it apart from the other players.
Founded in 2012 by Silicon Valley veterans, the Bangalore-based Company subjects every potential opportunity to a rigorous verification process, first by a top law firm, and then by SmartOwner itself – ensuring that the pricing, specifications and market trends are accurate. Every offering is, therefore, scrutinized for risk as well as returns. Thereafter, SmartOwner funds a large part of the project in exchange for exclusivity terms. The returns from the grind are then passed on to the investors, in the form of safe and profitable transactions. Moreover, it also facilitates reselling of the property, through its market subsidiary, after a holding period, thus maintaining engagement with the investors long after the initial purchase.
The latest offering
In the five years since its inception, SmartOwner has had an impeccable track record, with its clients reportedly having earned average annual returns in the range of 21-24 percent through the 10 projects that SmartOwner has launched and exited. With such statistics in mind, interest in SmartOwner’s latest offering– BLR-WHT-GDN- in Whitefield, Bangalore is bound to pique.
Situated in the eastern part of Bangalore, which is one of the city’s most dynamic neighborhoods, the offering claims to be “a new breed of real estate opportunity”, which allows clients to function as direct stakeholders in the project as a whole. With this, it provides guaranteed a fixed income for the duration of the investment, which may range from three to five years. This comes along with a floor of 10% on the downside, regular quarterly payouts, and an appreciation-based payday. Besides, its tax structure is set up in a way that all income derived from it is tax-free in the hands of the investor. It also allows the investors to profit from below-the-line charges, like parking fees, that are considered expenses in a typical property investment. The offering, therefore, offers the safety of fixed income, along with the upside of the prime real estate.
#Smartwaytoinvest
SmartOwner’s recent offering evidences its urge and constant drive to innovate in a marketplace that has not seen any dynamic transformational growth for a while now. In this scenario, it is offering a promising outlook that aims to give a much-needed makeover to what is otherwise considered a lumpy asset.
Featured image: Pexels
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