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Business News/ Companies / Start-ups/  Square Yards targets overseas sales to supply 30% of revenue
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Square Yards targets overseas sales to supply 30% of revenue

Square Yards co-founder Tanuj Shori says the realty start-ups is tying up with international developers as their prime channel partners

The Gurgaon-based company currently operates in 10 countries including India, the UAE, UK, Germany and Australia.Premium
The Gurgaon-based company currently operates in 10 countries including India, the UAE, UK, Germany and Australia.

New Delhi: Square Yards Consulting Pvt. Ltd, a real estate start-up, is looking to increase its share of revenue from international properties, said a top executive of the company.

The Gurgaon-based company currently operates in 10 countries including India, the UAE, UK, Germany, Australia. Revenue from the sale of international properties contributes 10% of its overall revenue. The firm is making efforts to increase it to 30% over the next one year, said Square Yards co-founder Tanuj Shori.

“(To promote international sales) we are strengthening our distribution networks; we just recently (in October) opened our offices in Vancouver, Canada. We are sending people from India (to Canada) as well as recruiting people locally. We are strengthening our teams there, we are tying up with international developers as their prime channel partners—partnerships in which we take exclusive mandates to market their properties," said Shori.

“We have also stepped up our marketing activities in these international markets. Every week we conduct events around the globe. These are generally property road shows where we ask a few developers (Indian/international) to join us in the event; we generate the footfalls and facilitate property sales," he added.

Founded in 2013 by Shori and his wife Kanika Gupta Shori, Square Yards facilitates only primary sale of houses. It partners with developers, lists their properties online and helps them convert them into offline sales, either through its own network of on-ground staff or partner brokers.

Square Yards plans to launch offices in the US soon, said Shori. It is also looking to expand to South Africa and more countries in Europe. The company expects its team of 1,100, out of which 150 are in overseas markets, to double in the next 12-24 months.

The company claims to earn 35% of its revenue from non-resident Indians buying properties. Indians are among the highest investors (in terms of investment value) in London and Dubai-based properties, said Shori.

Sales in international markets fetch almost 50% higher margins compared to those in India, making the former more lucrative. Also, the working capital cycle is shorter for Square Yards—while the company receives its commission within a month from international developers, it takes relatively longer to receive payments from Indian developers.

The company charges a percentage of the sale value as commission. In India, this commission ranges between 2% and 10%.

Currently, Square Yards sees 600 transactions a month across all its markets, clocking monthly revenues of $1.5-2 million. The company expects revenue to grow to $3-3.5 million in the next 12 months across 1,000 transactions.

Square Yards has 6,000 listings from 400 developers in India, and about 120 projects from 100 global developers.

In 2015, Square Yards launched Square Capital, a financial product which helps consumers take loans for buying a house, for which the company has partnered with over 40 financial institutions. It charges 0.5-2% of the loan value as commission from these financial institutions. Square Capital contributes 20% of the firm’s revenue.

In November, the company raised $12 million from the private equity arm of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group.

Many companies have emerged in the real estate segment that also list resale and rental properties, unlike Square Yards. These include Info Edge (India) Ltd-owned 99acres.com, SAIF Partners-backed NoBroker Technologies Pvt. Ltd, SoftBank-backed Housing.com (Locon Solutions Pvt. Ltd), among others.

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Published: 13 Dec 2016, 05:31 AM IST
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