Online real estate advisor PropTiger.com said on September 5, that it has acquired Mumbai-based start-up PropRates, which gathers real estate transaction data.

The acquisition, the price of which was not disclosed, will enable PropTiger to offer consumers real-time data about property transactions, both sales and rentals, in Mumbai in order to determine the fair market value of a property.

News Corp.-backed PropTiger, which also owns real estate portal Makaan.com, has been acquiring start-ups to gain strength in areas such as data research and 3D reality (which enables buyers to look at properties in a 3D environment).

PropTiger bought a start-up called 3DPhy in August to strengthen 3D visualization. Last year, PropTiger bought Bengaluru-based OoBI Media Solutions Pvt. Ltd, which operates a digital interaction design start-up under the Out of Box Interaction brand.

PropTiger has been offering new products such as 3D realty and real estate data insights to widen its revenue stream from the current dependence on commissions from real estate transactions.

While the 3D visualization service is yet to gain widespread acceptance in the real estate market, other portals such as commonfloor.com and housing.com are also experimenting with the technology.

“With this acquisition, PropTiger will be able to augment its existing DataLabs offerings. The advanced data collation tool developed by PropRates will enable users make more informed choices based on actual transaction prices while buying or renting property,” said Dhruv Agarwala, Chief Executive Officer of PropTiger.com and makaan.com.

PropTiger plans to tap its wide user base to offer its real estate data insights. The PropRates service will initially be available in Mumbai and later extended to nine other cities under the next phase of expansion, the company said.

Source: Mint

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