Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB), through its Real Estate Research Initiative (RERI), has partnered with proptech platform Square Yards to develop and publish a property price index for India under a long-term collaboration. The initiative aims to create a credible and transparent benchmark that tracks residential property price movements across the country over time.
Through this partnership, IIMB and Square Yards seek to provide homebuyers, investors, lenders, policymakers, and researchers with a reliable reference point in a market that has long struggled with fragmented and inconsistent pricing information.
To support the initiative, Square Yards will provide anonymised and aggregated data from its extensive real estate intelligence ecosystem. The dataset includes more than 150 million property registration records, government guidance values (circle rates), Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) data, primary transaction records generated through its platform, and residential property listings. The company will periodically share this data to facilitate the development and maintenance of the index while supporting related academic research.
Prof. Venkatesh Panchapagesan, chairperson, RERI, and faculty of finance & accounting at IIM Bangalore, said, “Indian housing markets have historically lacked the transparent, high-frequency price benchmarks that mature markets take for granted. The value of this collaboration lies in combining the scale and granularity of Square Yards’ data with a rigorous, transparent and independently developed methodology. Our aim is to create an index that stands up to academic scrutiny and genuinely informs how households, institutions and policymakers understand the direction of property prices in India.”
Under the agreement, IIM Bangalore will lead the design of the index methodology and develop the underlying scientific model. Additionally, the institute will retain complete academic independence and publication rights for the research conducted through the collaboration. The jointly developed index will combine Square Yards’ extensive market data with IIMB’s peer-reviewed statistical methodology, ensuring that the benchmark remains both data-rich and academically independent.
Tanuj Shori, founder and chief executive officer of Square Yards, said, “For over a decade, we have been building one of the most comprehensive real estate data ecosystems in India, spanning registrations, transactions, listings and government benchmarks across the country. We have always believed this data can serve a purpose far larger than our own business. Partnering with IIM Bangalore allows us to put that data intelligence to work for the entire market. A credible, independent property price index is exactly the kind of public infrastructure Indian real estate has needed, and we are proud to help build it.”
Furthermore, both organisations stated that the property price index is intended to serve as a shared industry benchmark rather than a proprietary product. IIM Bangalore will publish research and analytical findings generated using the shared data while acknowledging Square Yards as the official data provider. At the same time, both organisations will be able to utilise the jointly developed index in their respective research, market reports, and business activities, encouraging wider adoption across India’s real estate ecosystem.
The collaboration marks a significant step towards improving transparency, strengthening data-driven decision-making, and establishing a standardized pricing benchmark for India’s residential real estate market.
