Home buyers can now use GIS to spot their preferred property

Property buyers can now fetch exact locations of Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA)-registered projects on the Maharashtra RERA website.

A Geographical Information System (GIS) will be available on the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) website to enable such a search.

GIS is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present spatial or geographic data.

Other cities such as Hyderabad and Delhi NCR are also treading the GIS route as a part of the government's smart city and digitisation initiatives.

“GIS will not only ease the home buying experience for buyers but also help the real estate developers in recognising and analysing potential locations for real estate development,” said Santhosh Kumar, Vice Chairman, ANAROCK Property Consultants. He believes the real estate sector will benefit from adoption of this technology.

In the following piece, let us understand more about GIS and its benefits.

“GIS is a toolset which will allow users to digitally represent real-time geographical features through which one can perform analysis, visually interpret three-dimensional patterns and trends in the form of reports, maps, charts etc,” Kumar explains,

In simple terms, a home buyer will be able to locate the projects on a map and also look around the locality for the presence of social and physical infrastructure which includes schools, hospitals, metro station, railway station etc.

Ankur Dhawan, Chief Investment Officer, PropTiger.com pointed out, “Until now on MahaRERA website it was not possible for any visitor to find the location of a project. This was forcing buyers to move to developer website to find the location on Google map of the project.” Now, at the click of a button, all desired details will be available to a potential home buyer which speeds up the decision making process.

According to Ashok Mohanani, Vice President NAREDCO (West), Chairman Ekta World, “GIS can be used to differentiate between developed and developing areas. It can ascertain cost and time of transportation and housing, which can help ascertain the potential areas which can be acquired.”

Rajeev Jain, Director of Nirmal Lifestyle believes, “Buyers can filter through various options which includes tracking the exact location of the project and identifying different modes of transport available to travel. It aids buyers in knowing how far it is from particular location and amenities available in the neighborhood.”

GIS is an expensive software and requires an enormous amount of data to be accurate. Amit Wadhwani, Director, Sai Estate Consultants explained, “As the accuracy depends on the data it comes from, the data may not be able to service different contexts, particularly if that data is not applicable. If property buyers are to interpret the GIS map or the design, data availability is a major issue.”

Most consumers use portals to narrow down choices in their location. For real estate professionals, these portals generate leads, bring more tenants and buyers that eventually helps them in closing deals. A GIS technology brings much more to the table in terms of insightful data that is easy to understand as compared to the data derived from these current portals.

Mohanani explains, “GIS helps to develop interesting graphics on the realtor’s websites that increase the interaction of the buyers and differentiate the websites from its competition. On the other hand, real estate portals are not as advanced as GIS as this new application allows and improves collaborations across the real estate business.”

However, Dhawan believes, “Most real estate portals have user-friendly interface and provide additional information compared to the RERA website which includes pricing of projects, resale options, rental options compared with buy options.”

So, the buyers of realty should make the best use of available resources using RERA website and real estate portals while making a decision to purchase.