Key Takeaways
July 18, 2026 · 4 min read · By Rishabh Bhardwaj
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Aurum PropTech, a listed real estate technology company, has agreed to acquire Housing.com for roughly ₹458 crore through a share swap with Australia-based REA Group. The deal gives Aurum full ownership of Locon Solutions, the entity that operates the Housing.com marketplace, and reshapes the competitive landscape for online real estate in India.
Under the terms approved by Aurum's board, the company will issue nearly 1.98 crore new equity shares to REA India at ₹231.42 per share. No cash changes hands. Instead, REA receives Aurum stock, and its stake in Aurum PropTech rises sharply from 5.54% to 24.9%, making it one of Aurum's largest shareholders. The deal is expected to close before September 30, 2026, pending shareholder and regulatory approvals.
Alongside the acquisition, Aurum's promoter entity Aurum RealEstate Developers will subscribe to 51 lakh convertible warrants worth up to ₹118 crore at the same price of ₹231.42 each. These warrants can be converted into equity within 18 months, giving the promoter a structured way to inject fresh capital as the enlarged business takes shape.
Housing.com draws over 5.8 crore average monthly visits and has more than 1.2 crore monthly active users, according to Aurum's disclosure. That scale makes it one of India's larger property search portals. But its financials carry a warning: Locon Solutions reported a standalone turnover of ₹309.8 crore for FY26, less than half the ₹687.5 crore it recorded the previous fiscal year. The sharp revenue decline is a material risk Aurum will need to address once it takes control.
Aurum's stated rationale is to build a single platform spanning the entire real estate transaction lifecycle, connecting consumers, builders, and brokers for both rentals and sales. The company already processes transactions and financing through its own platform. Housing.com adds top-of-funnel discovery traffic. Aurum founder and CEO Ashish Deora described the logic as a "data flywheel" where intent signals from Housing.com's search traffic feed Aurum's transaction and financing engine, making the combined platform progressively more useful over time.
In practical terms, the bet is on reducing leakage between property discovery and deal closure. Right now, a buyer might search on one portal, contact a broker through another channel, arrange financing separately, and manage paperwork elsewhere. Aurum wants to collapse those steps onto one platform, which would improve unit economics if it raises conversion rates and reduces customer acquisition costs.
Housing.com has had a turbulent history. The company once attracted capital from SoftBank and Nexus Venture Partners, but unraveled publicly when co-founder and then-CEO Rahul Yadav was removed by the board amid investor disputes. It merged with rival PropTiger in 2017 and passed into REA Group's ownership along with PropTiger and Makaan.com.
This transaction is consistent with Aurum's established acquisition strategy. The company bought PropTiger from REA in 2025, acquired home rental startup NestAway in 2023, and picked up NestAway's co-living and student living unit Hello World in 2022. Each purchase added a distressed or subscale proptech asset at a discount to peak valuations. Housing.com follows that pattern, though the revenue collapse in FY26 makes the turnaround task steeper than the headline deal price suggests.
For REA Group, the share swap converts a non-core, shrinking Indian asset into a meaningful equity stake in a platform that is assembling the full real estate value chain. Rather than exiting India entirely, REA becomes a significant minority partner with upside if the integration succeeds.
Investors in Aurum PropTech will watch two things closely: whether the company can stabilize Housing.com's revenue trajectory, and whether the combined data infrastructure actually improves conversion economics. The warrant issuance by the promoter signals internal confidence, but the FY26 revenue numbers mean execution risk is real and immediate.
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