99acres Buy/Rent/Sell Property

Review by eFreeware

99acres is a property search app from infoedge.com, built around buying, renting, selling and leasing homes and commercial space in India. It has been on Google Play since December 2013 and carries a 4.4 average from more than 215,000 ratings, with over 10 million installs. The app is free, with no ads and no in-app purchases.

The main reason to consider it is breadth. The developer puts listings from owners, brokers and builders in one place, spanning flats, houses, plots, farmhouses and service apartments on the residential side, and offices, shops, showrooms and land on the commercial side. If your search covers more than one city or more than one type of property, having that range in a single app saves a lot of moving between sources.

What follows is a look at how the app is organized, what the developer says it offers beyond listings, and the practical points worth weighing before you install it.

Searching and shortlisting across 600+ cities

The core of the app is search. You can browse property across more than 600 cities, then narrow results with filters that match what you are after, whether that is a flat to buy, a flat to rent, a shop to lease or a plot to purchase. Options you want to come back to can be saved for later, which matters when a shortlist builds up over weeks rather than in one sitting.

Landmark search is the other way in. Instead of starting from a locality name, you can explore homes, flats, shops and offices in and around a place you already know, such as a workplace, a school or a relative's neighborhood. For someone relocating to an unfamiliar city, that is often a more natural starting point than a list of area names.

The developer also points to similar localities, so when a search turns up an area that fits, you can look at comparable ones nearby. Between filters, saving and landmark search, the app is set up for the long, iterative hunt that property usually is rather than a quick one-off query.

Locality research before you commit

Listings tell you what is for sale or rent; they rarely tell you what an area is like to live in. The app's Real Estate Intelligence section is meant to close that gap, offering detailed information on the positives and negatives of localities across the country, drawn from what the developer describes as realistic data points. It is pitched as unbiased, which is the kind of claim worth treating as a starting point for your own checks rather than a final word.

Alongside that sits a ratings and reviews feature for societies and localities. People who live there now, or have lived there before, rate and review the place and give their opinion, which can surface the sort of detail that photographs and floor plans never show. Reading a handful of these before a site visit is a sensible habit.

Price context is covered too. You can track trends for a locality or city and look at property transaction prices through interactive graphs and charts. For a buyer trying to judge whether an asking price is reasonable, or an owner deciding what to list at, that historical view is often more useful than any single listing.

For owners, landlords and sellers

The app is not only for people searching. Homeowners can use it to reach buyers and tenants, and the app offers services to support that, including a dedicated relationship manager and the option to post a property through WhatsApp. For an owner who does not want to sit at a desk filling in forms, posting from a messaging app is a low-friction way to get a listing up.

Rental agreements can be created inside the app. You choose from a customizable template and the finished agreement is delivered to your doorstep, which the app presents as a quicker alternative to handling the paperwork yourself. For landlords renting out a flat, that covers a step that otherwise tends to involve a separate errand.

The New Projects pages have recently gained video content, with advice from builders and property consultants appearing in the Sellers You May Contact section. The latest update also mentions bug fixes and performance improvements. If you follow new developments rather than resale, that section is where the app now puts more of its material.

What to weigh before installing

The app is free to download, carries no ads and offers no in-app purchases, so there is no cost question to settle first. What it does require is that your interest lies in Indian real estate, since the listings, locality data and price information are all built around that market. Outside it, there is nothing here for you.

The second consideration is the nature of a listings marketplace. The app says millions of owners list their properties on the platform, with listings from qualified agents and top builders as well as no-brokerage properties. Because the inventory comes from many different sources, the quality and completeness of any individual listing will vary, and the app is a place to find and compare options rather than a substitute for visiting a property and verifying its paperwork.

The app searches listings and lets people buy, rent or sell property in India. Those are marketing claims, and the reasonable approach is to judge the results you get against them. The locality intelligence and resident reviews are useful inputs, but they are inputs, not decisions.

Who gets the most from it

The clearest fit is anyone searching for a home in India, whether buying or renting, who wants to compare a wide set of options without juggling several sources. First-time buyers benefit most from the locality research and price trend tools, since those address the questions a listing cannot answer.

Owners and landlords are the second group. The posting options, the relationship manager service and the in-app rental agreement cover the seller's side of the process, and the WhatsApp route in particular suits owners who are listing a property alongside a full-time job.

Investors looking at commercial space, whether offices, shops or showrooms, will find the commercial categories relevant, and the transaction price data gives a basis for comparing one area against another. Tenants searching for a PG will also find listings, though the app's strength lies in the depth of its residential and commercial inventory rather than in any one niche.

Families relocating for work are another natural audience. Landmark search lets them anchor a hunt around a new office, and the society reviews help narrow a shortlist before a trip to view properties in person. In each of these cases the app is doing the early, wide part of the work.

A capable starting point for an Indian property search

99acres does the discovery stage of a property search well. Listings from owners, brokers and builders across more than 600 cities, filters and saved searches, landmark search, locality intelligence, resident reviews and price charts add up to a substantial toolkit, and the free, ad-free model removes any reason to hesitate over trying it.

It is not a replacement for the parts of a transaction that happen offline. You still need to visit properties and verify what you are told, and the app's own claims about being the best and most trusted are the developer's words rather than a guarantee. Treat the locality and price data as evidence to weigh, not conclusions to accept.

If you are buying, renting, selling or leasing property in India and want a single place to start, this is a sensible install. Owners listing a property and buyers researching an unfamiliar city will get the most out of it, and anyone with a shortlist already in hand can use it to check prices and read up on the area before committing.

What's new in version 16.0.34

-You can now watch expert real estate advice directly from top builders and property consultants on New Projects pages. Start exploring now in the 'Sellers You May Contact' section! - Bugs fixes and some performance improvements