Essex India, a Hyderabad-based prop-tech company, aiming to disrupt home-buying and selling process in residential real estate market, plans to expand its operations to four cities in next six months. Essex, incubated out of Way2online, a leading marketing technology and data-driven company, is looking to expand operations to Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad.

Nirbhay Taneja, Co-Founder and CEO, Essex, told reporters in Hyderabad that by December 2019 they plan to have presence in eight major cities in the country. The company using its innovative technology solutions will address real estate-related vertical issues, helping developers to liquidate properties in short time. It also wants to standardise operations and take care of trust-related issues from buyer’s perspective.

The CEO said for buyers they would offer free services including legal diligence, document related services and financial assistance through all major banks. The company will be charging 3 to 5 per cent commission from the developers. It aims to capture 5 per cent of the marketing and sales opportunity estimated at Rs 30,000 crore. Raju Vanapala, Way2online Founder-CEO, told IANS that there are plenty of gaps in real state.

Small-time and mid-range developers do not have marketing team and marketing budget, leading to problems in liquidating their property. There is an estimated Rs 4.5 lakh crore unsold property in top eight cities in the country. “Imagine marketing spend of these players. 7-8 per cent of this comes to Rs 30,000 crore and our whole intent is to access this large market.” As real estate is second-largest revenue generator for Way2Online and the company is sitting on huge consumer data, it decided to foray into the business, addressing the gaps with its innovative technology solutions.