As cities expand due to mass migration of people from smaller towns and rural areas, India’s rental market will keep growing, and the demand for housing will only increase.
The rental market in India, which has been driven by brokers till now, is now shifting to being managed by property management companies. These companies help out owners with property management, and also assist them in various other processes such as determining the right rental, finding the right tenant, etc.
To provide end-to-end property management and renting solutions to both owners and tenants with online/offline techniques, three friends -- Satish Singh, Vivekanand Singh, and Shashi Bhushan Mall -- launched BivocalBirds in 2020.
“The idea came to me while I was searching for a flat for rent in Noida with my friends. Being IT professionals, we had a busy schedule and did not have much time to visit flats with brokers, who do not have proper clarity/transparency and professionalism. We visited the same flat with different brokers. It took more than a month to finalise the flat even though it did not match our criteria and requirements and we spent a lot of time, along with mental stress,” Satish tells YourStory.
“At that time we thought why not make it more organised to save the time and efforts of the tenants and owners by providing verified and matching profiles that are organised and professional,” he adds.
Currently, BivocalBirds offers its services in Noida, Greater Noida, and Ghaziabad. It claims to have served more than 200 owners on rent and 25 owners on property management.
The team
The Noida-based startup has a total of 20 members in its team. Satish, Co-founder and Innovation Head, is a UX/UI designer with 13 years of experience.
Co-founder Vivekanand has eight years of experience as a software engineer and has been operating a US staffing company called Originator Infomatics Pvt Ltd since 2018.
Shashi Bhushan, Co-founder and CTO, has more than 10 years of experience as a software engineer.
“We have been friends for 10 years,” says Satish.
How it works?
The startup works as a medium between the owner and the tenant. For owners, it provides services like finding verified and desired matching profile tenants, handling tenants’ visit, negotiate on behalf of the owner, property evaluation as per market and get best deals, rent agreement documentation/police verification, property key management, property management, and dedicated relationship manager.
For tenants, it helps them in finding the best suited property and get a visit on scheduled time, rent agreement documentation/police verification, provide society gate pass and onboarding formalities, negotiate on behalf of the tenant, on-demand deep cleaning before shifting, giving fit out clearance before entering flats, virtual visit and handling virtual meetings between the owner and tenants.
“We manage all our services with our web portal and Android mobile application,” Satish says.
Owners can deposit their key with BivocalBirds and get it back whenever required with approval, he says.
“We also provide property audits quarterly in case of property management,” Satish adds.
The market and business
As per a survey by MagicBricks and Forbes, India’s residential market is worth $2.2 billion. BivocalBirds was started with an initial investment of Rs 90,000, and is bootstrapped so far.
For the last fiscal year, the startup claims to have earned a revenue of Rs 24 lakh.
“This year we plan to achieve 5x growth,” says Satish. “We charge 7 percent on a monthly basis once a tenant occupies the flat. If the tenant is not occupying the flat, we will not charge anything.”
At present, BivocalBirds has 500 active customers and 5,000 active properties listed on the platform.
The way ahead
Satish says, “The area where we jumped is an ocean with a lot of possibilities and opportunities.”
“We are growing in the renting business along with property management. Till now we are focused on customer services and are receiving positive feedback. Our main motive is to get more owners on property management to make their life easy so they can enjoy their investment,” Satish says.
Some of BivocalBirds’ competitors include companies like NestAway, 99acres.com, Oyo Life, Prop Dial, StayAbode, FlatMate, Commonfloor, NoBroker, Zolo, and many more.
“BivocalBirds stands out from its contenders by managing processes from start to finish for occupants and house owners by dealing with everything such as making the legal rent document, lease assortment, house upkeep, society gate pass, on-boarding formalities, etc. So, in simple words, it intervenes all through the rental life cycle,” Satish says.
Edited by Megha Reddy