Housing.com Co-Founder Rahul Yadav Is Back In Real Estate Business

Housing.com co-founder Rahul Yadav has again joined a real estate venture, two years after he quit as the chief executive officer of the property search portal due to differences with investors.

Yadav has teamed up with Anuj Puri, a real estate veteran and former head of property consultant JLL. He has been appointed as the chief product and technology officer of ANAROCK Property Consultants, the company said in statement on Monday. The online residential brokerage, fund and investment platform was spun off from the real estate-focused private equity business of JLL, which Puri acquired last month.

Yadav stepped down from Housing.com in July 2015 amid differences with investors. The startup, at the time, was backed by marquee investors including Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. Following his exit, Yadav started another data analytics firm Intelligence Interfaces in September 2016 but wound that down within six months.

Calling his appointment as the next logical step in his career, Yadav said in the statement, “Given my product and technology background, I am fascinated by the highly tech-driven approach that ANAROCK is adopting for its residential real estate business, and I already feel very much at home here.” He is building a team of product and technology experts.

The Indian residential buyers and investors will not embrace an e-commerce model of property purchase unless they get a seamless experience from online selection to offline advisory and transaction closure, Puri said in the statement. With Yadav on board, the firm aims to reduce that gap.

“Rahul Yadav’s experience in harnessing the consumer housing market via technology will add the key element,” Puri said.

In January this year, Housing.com was merged with real estate portal PropTiger.