From boardroom battle to buyout: Housing.com’s Rs 458 crore new chapter

Housing.com has been through more corporate upheaval than most Indian startups its age. Founded in 2012, it rose to become one of the country’s most high-profile property platforms before a public boardroom battle forced out co-founder and chief executive Rahul Yadav in 2015, triggering a restructuring and job cuts. Now the company is entering a new phase, this time as part of a listed proptech group.

Aurum PropTech’s board approved an all-stock deal on Thursday to acquire 100% of Locon Solutions, the holding entity for Housing.com, from REA India for Rs 458 crore. Aurum will pay with 1.98 crore of its own shares, priced at Rs 231.4 each, rather than cash.

The share swap changes REA Group’s position in Aurum rather than ending its involvement. The Australian digital property company already held 5.5% of the listed Indian firm; the new allotment will take that up to 24.9%. REA’s ties to the Housing.com business stretch back to 2017, when it invested in parent company Elara Technologies, which also owned PropTiger.com and Makaan.com. It increased that stake to 61% in 2020, and Elara was renamed REA India in 2021.

Housing.com now joins a growing list of proptech businesses under Aurum, including rental platform NestAway, bought for up to Rs 90 crore in 2023 in a deal that later became the subject of a dispute, and student housing venture HelloWorld. Aurum says it intends to connect property search, developer inventory, brokers, rentals and transactions across these platforms through shared AI and data infrastructure.

Aurum is separately issuing 51 lakh convertible warrants to its promoter, Aurum RealEstate Developers, at the same Rs 231.4 price, a move that could raise up to Rs 118 crore in cash. Should those warrants be fully converted, the promoter’s fully diluted stake in Aurum would rise to 41.1%.

The acquisition still requires shareholder and regulatory clearance, with Aurum targeting a close by September 30. For a company that has already survived one very public leadership crisis, the deal marks Housing.com’s transition into a consolidated, listed real estate technology group.

Wikimedia Commons/by Kushagra140