Hit by the property slump in Western markets, real estate broker associations overseas are beginning to closely network with their counterparts in India, where the property market remains relatively vibrant. The hope is they can compensate for losses of income at home by referring the clients to brokers in India.
Indian brokers are today generating business leads about NRIs through international real estate networks like World Properties, The International Real Estate Federation (FIABCI) and Realtor.com. “Our counterparts in another country share the seller/buyer details and requirement with us. And we in turn work towards concluding the transaction and give our counterparts a referral fee. The standard referral fee is 25-30% of the total brokerage value,” said Farook Mahmood, CMD of Silverline Realty. He is also the vice-president of FIABCI, the only Indian to be elected to the organization’s board.
The interest from NRIs in buying property in India is strong for two reasons: one, they are getting unnerved by the economic conditions in the West and want to build a backup base in India, and two, the decline in the rupee has made products in India cheaper in terms of foreign currency.
US-based Naresh Malkani, CEO of Indiaproperties.com, referred agricultural machinery manufacturer John Deere & Co to a Pune-based broker to close a few residential and commercial transactions. “I also referred a client from Malaysia to a broker in Pune for the sale of their flat in Aundh. For both the transactions, I got a referral fee equal to 30% of the gross commissions earned by the local broker,” Malkani said.
Mahmood says a lot of enquiries are pouring in from expats looking to move to India for job placements. “Some invest to buy under construction homes either to move back or as investment, and the rest invest in commercial properties,” he said.
Several Indian and overseas broker associations have signed bilateral agreements. Such agreements also mean that if, say, a broker is a member of the National Association of Realtors-India, he can get automatic affiliation to the National Association of Realtors, US, and International Consortium of Real Estate Associations (ICREA) as part of protocol agreements.
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