State Bank of India has partnered with Magicbricks, India’s leading property site, to offer building projects to customers of some 500 real estate builders, whose projects the bank has rated and approved, through Magicbricks site. Prospective home buyers on Magicbricks portal will also be able to avail of SBI’s end-to-end online home loan-approval solutions. According to Rajnish Kumar, MD (National Banking Group) of the bank, it is a deal under which all the four stakeholders can benefit – the prospective buyers who will have the comfort that the project has been rated and approved by SBI, the builder partners, who will get a market that is being offered through Magicbricks, the bank, as well as Magicbricks. According to Sudhir Pai, CEO, Magicbricks, about 65% of those buying a home go online at some time during the buying process. So, it is apparent that the online medium has been able to aggregate a large number of users. However, he said, one of the challenges is trust. Buyers ask if the title is clean, if all the approvals are in place and whether the listing genuine. With about 500 builders on Magicbricks portal, Pai believes it is possible to bring in about 60-80 lakh customers on the site.
