About Anuj Puri, Chairman, Anarock Property Consultants:
Anuj Puri is essentially an entrepreneur with 30 years of experience in multi-disciplinary advisory and transactions ranging from real estate to social development projects, planning, undertaking demand assessment studies and transactional services including marketing strategies based on technical real estate market analysis. He formed Anarock Property Consultants in 2017, a real estate services company across all major real estate verticals, with a presence across India and the Middle East.
How did Anarock continue to maintain its operations in the real estate market amid the pandemic?
Real estate is fundamentally a people business based on relationship-building – but as the proliferation of social media channels proves, there is more than one way for interactions to take place. Today, a lot of the sales work that previously called for personal interactions can be done digitally. For instance, the company has deployed a one-stop IDSS (Integrated Digital Sales Solution) platform that virtually integrates all property deal operations from discovery to engagement and sales bookings. IDSS connects customers, developers and brokers and provides real-time inventory updates, 3D renders, virtual walk-throughs and product videos, video conferencing with the sales team, and all relevant documentation. Similar technologies are now being developed and used by brokerages in other countries.
How has the company been able to leverage the benefits of Prop-tech?Â
Proptech is the future of real estate – particularly artificial intelligence and machine learning. For instance, at Anarock, we have developed ASTRA. This AI/ML based technology platform accelerates sales and enhances revenue turnover by 12-15%. The system’s algorithm analyses customer behaviour data to yield highly accurate leads, thereby boosting marketing efficiency, reducing costs, and delivering an engaged user experience to developers and their customers.
How are companies working towards balancing sustainability with safety in the post-pandemic era?
To an extent, the previous hard focus on sustainability took a backseat during the pandemic as there were more pressing compulsions to deal with. However, factors like lower office population density, reduced in-office energy and water consumptio n, and increased focus on technology to get work done have compensated for this brief focus deviation. Today, decreased employee commuting and site visits have brought the most important elements of sustainability back to the forefront. Apart from reducing our own carbon footprint in all possible ways, Anarock is actively involved in advising residential complexes, malls and workplaces how to adapt to the New Normal, including on the sustainability front. Any situation that involves less people movement and increased technology adoption – with the exception of functions like cryptocurrency mining, of course – can potentially reap positive environmental dividends.   Â
How will workplaces change in the aftermath of the pandemic?
It is, perhaps, still too early to make any definite predictions on this. Much depends on how soon the pandemic is stamped out and when (or if) things return to normal. Apart from ‘sneeze guards’ becoming a more prevalent feature, we can reasonably expect that corporates will now maintain larger distances between workstations. Boardrooms may eventually become obsolete, not so much to avoid congregation than a natural evolution, driven by rapid advancements and adoption of audio-visual conferencing alternatives. Air filtration systems that involve ultraviolet light may make their appearance, and electronic sensors will drive many more functions apart from washroom taps. We may also see many large centrally-located offices splitting up into smaller ones located closer to residential hubs, and safety-first coworking spaces may become a lot more popular