Makaan.com allows home buyers to search property for INVESTMENT

Home buyers in India can be classified into two broad categories (a) users who buy the property for self use and (b) users who buy to grow their capital. Real Estate has grown as an asset class with more and more buyers looking at it as a preferred INVESTMENT option. Keeping the needs of these buyers in mind, Makaan.com, the fastest growing property website in India, today launched “INVEST” tab on their site. The “INVEST” functionality, which is currently in beta version, allows users to search properties that have given higher Rate of Appreciation (RoA) in the past years. Users can refine their search based on other popular filters like geographical preferences, budget, property type etc to arrive at a suitable shortlist.

Lets elucidate on how this new functionality will benefit the Investors: 

• INVEST tab allows users to search properties based on Rate of Appreciation (RoA)
• Users can refine their search based on geographical preferences, budget, property type, bedrooms etc to arrive at a suitable shortlist 
• Trend charts are available to track price movements; users can see historical and most recent price movements (a key requirement for an INVESTMENT)
• Users who want rental returns can see the expected rent for select properties
• Multiple properties can be compared to arrive at a shortlist
• Users can contact the seller thru “Instant Call back” feature

An internal study @ Makaan.com revealed that people INVEST in real estate to (a) secure their future with rental returns and / or (b) get capital appreciation. This functionality takes into account both these aspect and allows filtering based on individuals investment objectives. Makaan.com made use of its rich analytics strength i.e., Makaan.com Property Index (MPI), Makaan.com Buy Vs Rent Index (MBRI), Price Trends to come up with complex algorithm to launch this unique offering.

Speaking on the occasion, Aditya Verma, CEO Makaan.com said, “home buyers who want a property for self use, look at current and future requirements of their family, to zero down on the property specifications. The criteria for INVESTMENT is different and therefore there was a need for a differentiated product offering. We are sure, new INVEST functionality, the 1st of its kind in the Indian market, will cater to this need effectively and help a already large and growing population of people, realize their INVESTMENT dream”.     

Pleasant surprise for IITs ahead of placement season

For the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), this placement season may be much beyond their expectations. IITs say, given the economic scenario, they expected placements to be a muted affair, but the response from companies has been quite good. 

There is more. Placement cells have recorded an increase of 10-20% in average salary levels. The highest salary offered has seen an increase of around 20-90 per cent as compared to last year. Final placements on IIT campuses begin on December 1.

"Given the slowdown, we wondered if the placements would be as decent as last year but a good number of companies have confirmed participation allaying our fears," said a placement official from IIT Bombay.

A US-based software major has offered the highest salary (so far) of Rs 1.30 crore per annum, to an IIT Bombay student. However, an institute official said this cannot be confirmed till placements begin as the final offer has not been made yet. Last year Samsung (Korea) offered the highest salary at Rs 80 lakh per annum. 

IIT Bombay will see 1,600 students sitting for placements this year and expects around 250-270 companies to participate."Some US companies have doubled the salaries this year against what was offered last year," the placement official added. 

IIT Bombay said this year there is a lot of interest from software companies. Microsoft, Oracle, LinkedIn, Facebook, Goldman Sachs, Shell and  Samsung are  a few companies which have confirmed participation so far. 

Even IIT Kanpur and Kharagpur (IIT-KGP) are expecting salaries to be better than last year.  The institutes said IT giants like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo will be visiting the campus during placements next month. 

"There is misleading speculation that none of the US companies are coming to IITs for placements. This is not true. Some of these giants have taken care of their requirements through pre-placement offers (PPOs) which is why they are not coming. However, major IT, consulting, finance and core engineering companies like ITC, Microsoft, Google and Yahoo have confirmed their participation in the placements at IIT-KGP this year," said Sudhir Barai, head - training and placement at IIT-KGP.

For IIT KGP, feedback from recruiters has been "very good". "The number of companies participating at KGP has increased from 180 last year to 220 this year.  The feedback from recruiters have been very good and salaries will be higher than last year," said Barai. The batch size at IIT KGP this year is over 2000 students.

Seconding Barai is Vimal Kumar, chairman - training and placement at IIT Kanpur who said that global firms like Google, Microsoft and Amazon will be visiting its campus.  

"Some companies have dropped out after confirming but it is not alarming. This happens every year. However, salaries will be higher or at least like last year," said Kumar. IIT Kanpur will roughly see 200 firms participating in the placements process for a batch size of over 1000 students.  Other firms likely to participate at IIT Kanpur placements include Oracle, Mitsubishi, Diamond Consulting, Crédit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs, among others.

IIT Madras could not be reached for comments.