ANAROCK hires former Housing CEO Rahul Yadav

Rahul Yadav, co-founder and former CEO of Housing.com, has been hired as the chief product and technology officer by Anuj Puri-led ANAROCK Property Consultants

Anuj Puri, real estate magnate and erstwhile India head of Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), has roped in Rahul Yadav as the chief product and technology officer for his new realty venture ANAROCK Property Consultants.

ANAROCK, a real estate brokerage, investment and fund platform, is targeting a total portfolio value of $500 million for its fund business by 2020. Rahul has been tasked with developing a technology-driven online brokerage platform for the firm which ultimately wishes to attract international investments, The Economic Times reported.

Rahul won widespread renown in the startup ecosystem as the controversial CEO of online real estate company Housing.com. He was ousted from the well-funded startup in 2015 with the company's board stating that “his behaviour is not befitting of a CEO and is detrimental to the company, known for its innovative approach to product development, market expansion and brand building.”

Also read: Was Housing.com right in spending over Rs 120 crore on the lookup campaign?

Anuj aims to bring the e-commerce business model to the consumer real estate sector with ANAROCK through a 'robust technology infrastructure'. And Yadav, who has experience harnessing the consumer housing market through technology, seemed the ideal fit.

"This appointment is in line with ANAROCK's highly technology-driven orientation and business model for its residential advisory services. The online real estate business is still in a fledgling stage in India, and we are taking the lead in boosting it into maturity. So far, the real estate sector has not been able to emulate the success of e-commerce for consumer durables and services,” Anuj said in a statement.

After his departure from Housing.com, Yadav had started a now-defunct data analytics firm Intelligence Interfaces and had also advised Lodha Group for a brief period.

“Given my product and technology background, I am fascinated by the highly tech-driven approach that ANAROCK is adopting for its residential real estate business,” Rahul told the media.

ANAROCK, which Anuj created after getting full control of JLL's brokerage arm, plans to invest Rs 300 crore to establish its presence in the online and offline residential brokerage market.