ASX-listed powerhouse REA Group Ltd has agreed to hand over the keys to its marquee Indian property portal, Housing.com, in an all-share mega-merger valued at ₹458 crore (AUD$68 million).
Under the terms of the binding deal, REA India, which is 78% owned by REA Group, will transfer 100% ownership of Housing.com’s parent entity, Locon Solutions, over to Mumbai-listed Aurum PropTech Limited (“Aurum”).
Instead of a cash payout, REA India is taking a massive equity position in the expanding Aurum group. The Australian-backed firm will be issued 1,97,93,309 equity shares in Aurum PropTech at a set price of ₹231.42 (AUD$3.44) per share.
Prior to this transaction, REA India already held a modest 5.5% (reported as 5.54% by Aurum) slice of Aurum, which it picked up earlier after selling its PropTiger brokerage business.
Once this new deal settles, REA India’s total skin in the game will skyrocket to 24.9%. REA Group confirmed that this combined 24.9% holding “will be accounted for as a financial asset by REA Group”.
The corporate shakeup comes on the heels of a strategic review by REA Group, following its prior sale of PropTiger and the closure of its Housing Edge service earlier this year.
The deal is now waiting on the final nod from Aurum’s shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on August 14, with the keys expected to officially change hands before September 30, 2026.
Building a Property Super-App
For real estate agents and operators, this merger is a game-changer. It combines a massive consumer property portal with a powerhouse suite of day-to-day agency tools. Housing.com is a digital behemoth, attracting over 58 million average monthly visits and boasting more than 12 million monthly active users.
By absorbing Housing.com into its existing ecosystem—which already includes property management and CRM brands like NestAway, K2V2 Technologies, HelloWorld, and PropTiger’s enterprise tech—Aurum is building an end-to-end platform. The goal is a seamless digital pipeline that handles everything from the initial consumer property search down to developer inventory management, CRM tools, property rentals, and final transaction closures.
What the Leaders Say
Speaking to The Economic Times about the massive local scale of the deal, Aurum Ventures Founder and CEO Ashish Deora highlighted how the piece fits into their aggressive growth plans:
“This is our ninth acquisition over the last four years. Housing. com strengthens the top of our funnel and is expected to be value accretive across the real estate value chain. This acquisition makes us the largest proptech company in the country. We will focus on increasing our market share every quarter,” Mr Deora told ET.
Mr Deora said that having a global heavyweight like REA Group as a major shareholder opens up massive doors to expand India’s real estate ecosystem. In the official market announcement.
“We welcome REA as a significant shareholder in Aurum as we build the next chapter of India’s proptech ecosystem, powered by AI and data. Housing.com is India’s leading real estate marketplace, and Aurum is the largest tech enabled transactions platform.
“Bringing marketplace and transactions together on one platform will create compounding synergies that will drive the next phase of value creation.”
REA Group CEO Cameron McIntyre backed Aurum’s local expertise to take the platform to the next level.
“Aurum has strong capability and local market knowledge to operate the India business effectively. We are confident it will be in the right hands and is well placed to build on the strong foundations the team has established,” he said.
“To the REA India team, thank you for the significant contribution you have made. We are committed to supporting everyone through this process and look forward to future growth and partnership under Aurum’s leadership.”
The next steps
Behind the scenes, the business being traded has been growing fast. Housing.com’s parent company reported a booming audited turnover of ₹687.46 crore (AUD$102.2 million) for the 2024-25 financial year, up significantly from ₹447.49 crore (AUD$66.5 million) the year before. It holds an authorised share capital of ₹68.31 crore (AUD$10.1 million) and a paid-up share capital of ₹28.04 crore (AUD$4.2 million).
On the Australian side of the ledger, REA Group expects the divestment to trigger an overall accounting loss of approximately AUD$110 million, which reflects goodwill impairments and deal costs.
For the 2026 financial year, the Indian business is expected to log roughly AUD$62 million in revenue for REA Group, while reducing EBITDA by around AUD$36 million (AUD$37 million when removing foreign currency fluctuations). REA will list the local Indian branch as a discontinued operation for its upcoming group results.
To seal the partnership, Aurum’s board has rewritten its corporate rulebook to give REA India official “tag-along” rights, meaning REA can participate in any future negotiated sales of promoter shares as long as it holds at least a 10% stake in the company.