India

2025 pricing stayed firm in headline terms but with widening city/micro-market dispersion. Knight Frank reports average residential prices across major cities rising 7% YoY in H2 2025 to INR 95,326/sq m, while launches fell 10% YoY to 87,114 units (supply discipline). ANAROCK's Q2 2025 data showed top-7 available inventory at 562,150 units (-3% YoY), consistent with absorption-led conditions mid-year. By year-end, ANAROCK data reported by Economic Times shows sales down 14% (395,625 units) vs supply up 2% (419,170 units), lifting unsold stock 4%-suggesting 2026 pricing is likely to remain 'mid-single digit' in aggregate with sharper negotiation in inventory-heavy pockets rather than a uniform national surge.

AI/automation is moving from marketing into the product layer: Housing.com launched an AI-powered price trend engine (historic price trends integrated into search) and has deployed an AI anchor in short-form video discovery; it also continues to push immersive 3D/AR/VR exploration. On the transaction side, NoBroker positions itself as a 'brokerage-free' platform and is profiled by Google Cloud as using cloud/AI services to help customers make better real-estate decisions. Net signal for 2025: higher conversion will increasingly accrue to portals that combine intent capture (search + short video) with AI-led pricing guidance/lead scoring and operational automation-while staying privacy-compliant under DPDP.

Integrity pressure rose materially in 2025. The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (RERA) prohibits marketing/booking/sale offers before project registration (Section 3) and requires promoters' advertisements/prospectuses to prominently include the RERA authority website and the project registration number (Section 11(2)). States are operationalising this for digital channels: Gujarat RERA announced marketing rules requiring RERA numbers and QR codes in marketing materials (including social posts/video). Tamil Nadu RERA introduced stricter ad guidelines effective July 1, 2025, including RERA number + scannable QR code + website address and bans on unsubstantiated claims. MahaRERA also escalated professionalisation via broker de-registrations for non-compliance (18,693 brokers). Fraudulent social-media ads remain a live risk, reinforcing the value of 'verified' listing rails and RERA-linkouts inside portals.

PropTech consolidation became explicit in 2025: REA India agreed to sell PropTiger to Aurum PropTech in exchange for a 5.5% equity stake, a share-swap deal highlighted as a notable proptech M&A milestone. Strategically, this points to a shift from pure lead-gen portals toward integrated transaction/financing + tech platforms, and to portfolio rationalisation by multi-brand groups.

Regulatory infrastructure is being modernised and tightened. MoHUA lists state/UT Real Estate Regulatory Authorities (RERAs) as the primary statutory regulators for project/agent registration under RERA. Press reporting indicates work toward a unified RERA portal to standardise and aggregate state RERA data-aimed at transparency and easier buyer due diligence. Separately, the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023 sets consent and notice requirements (clear, informed consent; right to withdraw; language options), raising compliance expectations for portals' lead forms, retargeting and CRM flows. Consumer advertising scrutiny is also increasing via CCPA's misleading advertisement guidelines, which can intersect with real-estate claims and influencer marketing.

Verification is becoming a competitive moat. RERA's restrictions on pre-registration marketing plus mandatory disclosure of regulator website + registration number in ads push portals toward stricter KYC, RERA-number capture, and 'verified project' tagging.

Discovery is shifting from filter-first to content-first. Short-video discovery with AI narration/structuring (e.g., Housing Shorts' AI anchor) indicates that ranking and engagement will increasingly be driven by rich media, local context, and AI summarisation of listing attributes-benefiting portals that can normalise noisy listing data.

Market experience is converging toward 'one-stop' journeys: brokerage-free discovery, home services, payments, and financing packaged around the listing. NoBroker's platform positioning and Square Yards' integrated transactions/financing/services posture exemplify this bundling.

Product innovation is now strongly visual + data-driven: AI price-trend surfaces inside search, and immersive 3D/AR/VR tours reduce friction for out-of-city/NRI buyers and pre-visit screening. Housing.com's AI price trend engine and next-gen 3D/AR/VR suite are representative of this direction.