How Magicbricks is transforming real estate market with new-age tech and AI

Magicbricks is at the forefront of transforming the real estate industry with cutting-edge technology. In an exclusive interview, Subodh Kumar, Head of Technology, Magicbricks, discusses how the platform has developed innovative tools that empower small businesses, brokers, and builders to thrive in a competitive market. By focusing on user-friendly software and advanced AI, Magicbricks is streamlining real estate transactions and setting new standards for the industry in India.

What’s the vision behind Magicbricks’ SaaS offerings, and how have they transformed user interactions?

At Magicbricks, our vision for SaaS offerings is rooted in our commitment to empowering small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the real estate sector to achieve growth and success through technology. We recognise that brokers and builders are navigating an increasingly competitive and data-driven market, and our mission is to support them by transforming their operations into tech-enabled, customer-centric enterprises.

Our SaaS solutions are designed to enhance efficiency, productivity, and presentation, allowing our clients to organise their businesses more effectively and engage with their customers in a more meaningful way. Over the years, we have introduced several features and tools including Agent Suite and Travel Time Search, and launched India’s first Real-Estate Experience Centre in Mumbai in 2016 towards this vision. Some of our recent offerings include tools like ReadPro, PropVideo, and WhatsApp ChatBot, which help brokers and builders streamline their processes, become more data-driven, and ultimately provide better service to their customers.

In addition to our current suite of products, we are continuously innovating and developing new solutions that will set new standards in the industry. These upcoming products aim to further enhance the capabilities of brokers and builders, making them even more data-centric and process-oriented, ensuring they remain competitive and successful in the evolving real estate landscape. It is with this vision that Magicbricks has always been a tech-first platform and has a legacy of industry-first innovations.

How has PropWorth been received, and what makes it unique in delivering accurate property valuations?

PropWorth has been exceptionally well-received by users across all segments, including buyers, sellers, and investors. The tool has garnered widespread appreciation due to its impressive accuracy, which currently stands at around 97-98%. This high level of precision in property valuations is helping PropWorth become a trusted resource for those looking to make informed decisions while buying or selling their homes, in the dynamic real estate market.

One of the key factors that sets PropWorth apart is its extensive coverage. The tool now encompasses around 70,000 projects and 5,500 localities across 30 cities, and we are continuously expanding this reach. This broad coverage ensures that users can access accurate property valuations across a wide range of locations.

PropWorth’s uniqueness also lies in its sophisticated algorithm, which has been meticulously developed and trained on a vast amount of data from various sources. This complex algorithm enables PropWorth to deliver reliable property estimates, making it an invaluable tool for anyone involved in real estate transactions. We remain committed to further enhancing its capabilities to provide even greater accuracy and coverage in the future.

How are Magicbricks’ AI and machine learning innovations, including your LLM, enhancing service offerings?

Magicbricks has been at the forefront of integrating AI and machine learning (ML) innovations to significantly enhance its service offerings, especially in the current real estate boom where demand is at a decade high. Across the value chain, these technologies are playing a pivotal role in enabling more informed and precise decision-making, which is critical as industry transactions continue to rise.

For instance, the Right Bank Recommendation Engine uses AI to match customers with the best home loan partners, analysing preferences, financial history, and loan requirements for personalised results. The Know Your Tenant (KYT) feature, launched last year, improves tenant-landlord interactions by facilitating secure, private conversations, reducing the risk of unreliable tenants by over 20%.

Additionally, the AI-powered Project Market Scanner (PMS) for developers and agents optimises content based on buyer preferences, boosting the lead-to-impression ratio by 82%. Through these innovations, Magicbricks offers a more efficient and personalised real estate experience, benefiting all stakeholders.

What challenges and successes has your data science team faced in developing AI tools, and how do these benefit users?

In data science, the accuracy and reliability of a model heavily depend on the size and quality of the dataset it is trained on. With real estate data being so dispersed and often unstructured, our team had to invest considerable time and resources into data collection, cleaning, and validation to ensure that the information we used was both accurate and representative of the market.

Hence our focus has been to overcome this challenge through innovative data acquisition strategies, partnerships, and advanced data processing techniques. By leveraging various sources and employing sophisticated methods to organise and refine the data, we were able to build AI models that deliver accurate and valuable insights.

The benefits of these efforts are significant for our users. Our AI tools provide more reliable property valuations, better recommendations, and more personalised services, all of which are underpinned by the high accuracy of our models. Users, whether they are homebuyers, sellers, or real estate professionals, can make more informed decisions with confidence, knowing that the insights they receive are grounded in a solid, data-driven foundation. This not only enhances their experience but also helps drive more efficient and successful real estate transactions.

How has the ReadPro CRM platform transformed broker engagement and lead conversion since its launch?

Our goal has always been to empower our stakeholders by enabling them to become more tech-savvy, organised, and efficient in their operations. ReadPro has been one such initiative, which has been enthusiastically embraced by the broker community, reflecting its value and effectiveness.

With this platform, brokers can now meticulously track and follow up on every lead they receive, ensuring no opportunity is missed. Moreover, the platform enhances team productivity by fostering transparency within their operations. Brokers now have access to a variety of reports that are readily available on demand, enabling them to maintain better control over their business. For instance, they can generate source-wise lead performance reports, allowing them to assess the effectiveness of different lead generation channels. Additionally, they can easily access team member productivity reports, which help in managing staff performance more effectively.

This capability not only streamlines their workflow but also empowers brokers to make data-driven decisions, ultimately driving their success in a competitive market.

How do you see AI and other emerging technologies reshaping the real estate industry in the near future?

Alongside AI, technologies like AR (Augmented Reality) and VR (Virtual Reality) are also set to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of real estate. While AR and VR have been present in the market for several years, their true potential is only beginning to unfold.

As technology continues to evolve, we can expect AR/VR devices to become more accessible and cost-effective, making them a practical tool for the real estate sector. This shift will have a significant impact, offering immersive, interactive experiences that allow potential buyers to explore properties in a way that was previously unimaginable. These technologies will not only enhance the customer experience but also streamline the buying and selling process, making it more efficient and effective.