NoBroker simplifies renting out process in new ad

The unicorn startup will be spending over Rs 70 crore on its latest marketing campaign.

With multiple organisations adopting work from home or hybrid working policies, more and more people have recognised the importance of having spacious and comfortable homes. The last few years have also seen lower interest rates, than ever before, and an increase in incomes and savings. This has led to more people opting to buy their own houses, instead of renting one. 

It can be quite a hassle to rent out or sell a house. To eliminate the middlemen and make the entire renting and selling process seamless, NoBroker, a Bengaluru-based online platform for brokerage-free real estate, was launched in 2014.

The platform’s recent campaign highlights the ease of renting out a property. Conceptualised and executed in-house, the campaign is live on various media channels, including digital and traditional. It is the unicorn startup’s biggest marketing campaign till date, and it will be spending over Rs 70 crore on it.

Speaking about the objective of the ad, Saurabh Garg, co-founder & chief business officer of NoBroker, says that the brand’s research suggested that while the platform already has people who have registered their properties on it, many still believe listing a property online leads to a lot of work and hassle.

“Through our campaign, we wanted to explain that if you take the help of a relationship manager on NoBroker, then everything will be taken care of by the assigned individual. Whether it's speaking to the tenants, or scheduling meetings, or even after the deal is closed, things like the rent agreement, etc., are handled by the relationship manager on NoBroker,” adds Garg.

The ad shows an elderly woman using the app to find a suitable tenant for her house. Garg reveals that the platform’s audience on the demand side (tenants and buyers), is usually younger, typically 25-40 year olds, whereas the owners are slightly older in age and are about 40 or 45 plus. 

“We wanted to tell people that doing a transaction on NoBroker is so simple that even an elder person can do it easily,” says Garg.

The relationship managers at NoBroker, do all the work - right from filtering the most suitable tenants to legal verification and rental agreement. In the informal setup, the broker plays an important role between the owner and tenant, even after the deal is done. When the platform removes the role of a broker, how does it replace that relationship?

As per Garg, it is suboptimal to do that. For example, if maintenance has to be done in the tenant’s home, he sends a message to the broker, who will inform the owner. The broker will then communicate to the tenant. This creates a lot of chaos.

In NoBroker’s case, the owner wants to meet the tenant before he rents out his house. This is because the owners are very proud of the fact that they own the house and it's something they treasure a lot. And, the tenant shouldn't be someone who spoils their property. 

“Once the owner finalises the tenant, we feel we don't have a role to play then. Because, both of them can connect directly. Having an intermediary after the transaction doesn’t play much role. It just creates delays. It's a lot easier to do it directly,” states Garg.

The online home buying and renting segment has several players that are leveraging their own unique offerings. What differentiates NoBroker, Garg believes, from others is the platform’s name itself. There are no middlemen on the platform and one will find only genuine owners, tenants, buyers and sellers. 

“That’s our primary differentiation. We are also a one stop shop. Everything that one may want to do in real estate, they can do it through NoBroker,” Garg adds.

NoBroker currently has two crore registered users across Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad and Delhi-NCR. Its vision is to be present across the top 50 cities of India over the next 2-3 years, especially in all the major Tier-I cities like Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Surat, etc., shares Garg.