A key player in the real estate sector: A woman

One would normally not associate the real estate sector with women entrepreneurs. Buying, selling, renting properties is a man’s job, you would say. Till a woman comes along to shut you up.

Kanika Gupta is one such woman entrepreneur who is leading the way in the male-dominated sector with her real estate aggregator Square Yards.

Founded in October 2013 with just three employees, Square Yards now has team of over 1,200 employees spread across 29 offices in nine countries. It has closed over 6,000 transactions with a GTV of $800 million.

The young achiever

Kanika, winner of ‘Young Achiever of 2014’ by Franchisee India, narrates how she and her husband, Tanuj, hit upon the idea of Square Yards while living in Hong Kong.

Trying to invest in the Indian property market, they found it a distressful exercise. “The market was led by intermediaries operating business in an unprofessional and non-transparent fashion. The process became more cumbersome because of activities such as documentation, taxation, legalities, mortgage, etc. Our friends in India and abroad shared the same grievances, indicating that the problems were widespread,” says Kanika, Co-founder and COO of Square yards.

Kanika Gupta Shori graduated in economics from Delhi University. She completed her post-graduation in management from All India Institute of Management Association, with specialisation in finance, and also cleared the Chartered Financial Analyst Level 1 from Singapore.

It was clear to the duo that there was a need for an independent and unbiased real estate advisory, and to put the focus back on the requirements and convenience of buyers. Kanika explains: “Square Yards was born with the simple idea of handholding buyers through the entire cycle of property purchase in a hassle free and transparent fashion.”

Along with her husband, Kanika was involved in early execution of the company and was instrumental in setting up operations from scratch in Singapore, Hong Kong, London, UAE as well as India.

No. 1 in India, they say

As a brand, Square Yards has been growing at a scorching pace in the Indian real estate market, which is worth around $100 billion, of which the primary residential market is estimated at $60 billion.

The brokerage market is estimated at around $3 billion, and 60–70 per cent of it is concentrated in the top 10 Indian cities. By 2020, Kanika aims to capture around one-fifth of the market in major Indian cities.

She lists the USP of Square Yards: Under its revenue model, nothing is charged from the buyer for the services rendered. The aggregator markets and distributes portfolio of over 500 Grade-A developers to homebuyers and investors across the world. For every property sale, it charges a sales commission from the developers.

Square Yards is present across the entire value chain of the property advisory segment – research and consultation, property listing, and primary brokerage and mortgage advisory. “Of this, we are strongest in the brokerage off-plan properties,” says Kanika.
The company’s strength emanates from its unique omni-channel distribution model that leverages a right mix of digital and offline marketing capabilities. It adopts a multi-modal distribution force with help from large sales force, channel partners, events and roadshows, along with a strong digital buzz consisting of web, mobile, social media, and PR.

It points out that human resources has been a key propellant of its growth through the challenges. “We have always emphasised on hiring the right set of people who are not just skilful, but are capable of taking ownership,” adds Kanika.
In a short span, the company claims to have captured revenue of $30 million – more than any organised online and offline player in the property advisory segment.

Initial hiccups

One of the biggest struggles initially was to earn acceptability from developers as the fraternity was apprehensive about dealing with a new player that was based out of Hong Kong. To overcome this, they set up offices in various Indian cities and deployed sales force and on-ground staff.

But this created another challenge – to acquire and retain the right workforce. Kanika says, “At the top management level, we have a layer of principal partners who are also stakeholders in the company. Today, we have a team of 14 such partner-level individuals who act as mini CEOs, with everyone having full command of their key areas. In the sales organisation, we follow a PnL structure where each business division is responsible for its profit and loss, along with full accountability and a share in the rewards linked to performance.”

Square Yards was bootstrapped till the time the founders were very sure of its success. “Our belief was that unless we are confident of financial viability, we should not be risking anyone’s capital. Our savings and investments helped, followed by retail HNI money. Overall, we have invested $20 million before going to any institutional capital investor,” she explains, revealing that they are in talks with some private equity players for funding.

A peep into the future

A significant component of growth strategy would be the Square Connect app, “wherein 2,00,000 brokers would be added in three to five years,” says the founder. Using this app, small brokers can access exclusively sourced deals and inventory from grade-A developers. Likewise, the company plans to continue to expand its NRI presence in which it claims to have monopoly.

Another segment in which they are starting to focus is international projects. They are aggressively sourcing good deals and products from across the globe under the flagship International Project Marketing.

According to the company, it will soon launch a digital marketplace to facilitate pre-money buyer-developer interactions and negotiations on a multi-sided “fair price discovery” platform. This would be a self-regulating marketplace that will take away a lot of unnerving experiences buyers and developers have to go through while a transaction is being materialised.

The latest feather in her cap

Prior to Square Yards, Kanika earned hands-on experience in the entertainment industry, being involved in a gamut of things and events. After a fruitful acting career in Mumbai, she relocated to Singapore and then Hong Kong and executed NRI-focussed events, including real estate events for top Indian developers. This gave her a deep understanding and penetration into these markets in addition to enhancing her people management and soft skills.

Kanika has also over the years been associated with social causes like empowerment of women, supported an NGO for refugees in Hong Kong, another NGO that helps children without families, and a Hong Kong initiative to better the society we live in.

Source: http://yourstory.com/2016/05/square-yards/

Why the Real Estate sector in India is ailing today ?

Recently Indian cricket team's captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was in controversy because of his connection with real estate company, Amrapali as brand ambassador. Amrapali is a leading real estate group, which had allegedly defaulted in providing houses to its customers within the promised time line. Dhoni stepped out of this group when dissenting purchasers raised their anger in social media. 

It's not only Amrapali group, almost all the real estate groups are facing a tough time and all are defaulters of their contract conditions with the customers/purchasers some way or other. Although I am in professional construction line, but real estate sector being a special sector, I have absolutely no knowledge about its functioning and its business model.

However, recently I had a conversation with the head of a reputed real estate group regarding the tough time real estate sector is presently facing. He gave me some in depth information which I think public should also know. It's not always the developers or builders who are responsible, sometimes situations are also responsible for all the problems.

According to him, the business model of real estate is simple. Developers/builders generally invest in purchasing land, developing it, finalizing design and plan and then obtaining approval from statutory bodies. This approval system almost takes around six months and as many as 36 clearances are required (depending upon respective state government policies).

When everything is almost ready, they generally sell around 30 per cent houses/flats on cost-even (without any profit margin). The fund collected in this phase works as working capital. Then they start their project. When a part of project (for example one tower of a total three towers or thirty per cent of floors of single tower apartments) becomes ready, they start giving possessions to the customers booked in the first phase. At the same time they open their next 40% house booking at such a rate where they can get back their 90% of investment (direct and bank).

Because people start residing in that apartment, hence the cost of the house becomes more because of the obvious reasons. When these 40% houses are given to the customers they start selling balance 30% of houses at a very high cost. Because the apartment is already habituated people never mind paying more. This is the phase when the builders/developers not only get their investment with profit but also arrange fund for their next project. This cycle continues and sector moves in a sustaining mode.

During 2012-2013, due to various factors including policy paralysis in central government, people lost their purchasing ability and thus the initial 30% cost-even houses couldn't be sold thus creating a working capital crunch. Because of the reduction in demand, the 30% houses of the final phase, which were supposed to return the investment along with profit and investment for next the project, faced serious setbacks.

   

No selling or selling at lesser prices (desperate sale due to bank pressure) put the developers and builders in a serious cash-shortage situation. As the sector is interdependent on every phase including phases of next project, thus the sector has absolutely come under a serious slowdown phase. The developers failed to repay bank loans as they are not able to sell flats, forget about arranging fund to complete the initial phase of houses booked at a cost even rate. 

Even the initial phase of 30% houses couldn't be sold. That's why projects got delayed and builders started defaulting.

Such a phase was seen during 2006-2007 because of recession. But somehow the sector sustained subsequently. Builders also feel that present recession in real estate sector could be over by 2017 although at the moment it looks very tough. An all-round development is only way to bail out this sector as it depends heavily on people's buying capacity.

I don't know whether the builder gentleman's assessment is correct or not, but, the business model he described appears to be very logical. There is no doubt about requirement of houses in India. At the same time people need to have buying capacity also. Thus somehow economy of the nation is linked with this sector.

Let's see how the present government deals with the economy to bail out this sector. Till then people who have booked their houses may suffer delay and harassment as builders won't be able to fulfill their promises.

Source - http://www.merinews.com/article/why-the-real-estate-sector-in-india-is-ailing-today/15915609.shtml

Kanika Gupta Shori - Meets The Royals

Square yards COO Kanika Gupta Shori met Duke and Duchess of Cambridge Prince William and Kate Middleton

Every success has its own different story. It requires a proper dedication, and smart work to be one of the best. But when that success is being inspired and honored by others specially duke and duchess of Cambridge Prince William and Kate Middleton, that becomes a success story in itself. Kanika Gupta Shori- Founder & COO of leading real estate aggregator Square Yards was invited to meet Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton in a networking event where top entrepreneurs from around the globe had flown down to Mumbai.

Prince William and Kate are on a seven days long trip to India and on to remote Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan. During this schedule they were planned to attend an event on 11th April conducted under hugely successful  “GREAT for Collaboration” campaign launched by the Prime minister Narendra Modi & Prime Minister David Cameron to showcase existing Great Collaborations between the UK & India. The event was attended by young entrepreneurs who have revolutionized Indian startup space by taking it global & made a key mark in building collaborations in Indo-UK trade relations. The event was held  at upscale venue of Todi Mill Social in Lower Parel & was well attended by top British officials & selected few entrepreneurs & VC’s who got an opportunity to network & interact with the Royal Couple in one on one conversations. In Addition to Kanika Gupta Shori, few prominent names on the guest list included: Anand G Mahindra, T.V. Mohandas Pai, Shradha Sharma, Saurabh Srivastava to name a few.

On an interview with Kanika she said “I am delighted and it was a gracious moment for me to meet the Duke and Dutchess of Cambridge. What makes me feel great is that our work has been honored and appreciated by such great people. It’s a team effort and I strongly believe in the same”.  We further asked her what conversation she had with Prince Williams & she replied  in verbatim“ It was an honour to meet you today & when we meet next, hopefully my startup would have grown big enough to be invited in your palace & recognized for the same”

Kanika Gupta Shori is the co-founder of one of the fastest growing startups in Indian Real estate Sector. Started in 2013 by Tanuj Shori and his wife Kanika Gupta in Hong Kong, Square Yards now has dimensions in 18 countries and 22 cities. It is headquartered at Gurgaon, India. Square Yards is among those startups which have shown a remarkable success rate by upbringing Indian Startup space to International level. Well we can hope this meeting with the British council as a memorable and remarkable one opening up new spaces for Square Yards.