Hosted by experts in the real estate business, the site not only offers valuable advice on buying and selling, but also lets you put up your house/apartment/plot, etc, for auction. Also, you can go on a search mode by keying in your requirements. For a real taste of the game, remember to log on to www.realtiesindia.com. That's property shopping for real.

The site aims to provide all Indian real estate related information for potential investors, including property availability listings, legal procedures, regional information, etc. For the average investor, this saves a lot of money and much time in making a decision.

A value-addition for property shopping is the price index table that is now available on the site. Last updatedon May 14, the index can prove to be a significant tool for any consumer, consultant, researcher or student seeking information on the subject.

Hari Sarma, consultant with RealtiesIndia, says that the reference rates represent the total value for a property. For instance, if you ask the question: ``What is the price range for an apartment in Chennai?'', the reference rate gives you an idea. The value indicated in the reference table is derived as a product of property dimension and price/sq. ft, as indicated by the associated realtor.

For instance, if you're searching for an apartment in the range of 600-850 square feet, here's how the trend is. In Bangalore, nine apartments are listed for sale, with a low of Rs 7.65 lakh and a high of Rs 48.4 lakh.

Chennai has a heavy list of 90 apartments listed -- the low here is Rs 2.8 lakh and the high, Rs 1.05 crore. Delhi lists seven apartments with a low of Rs 11.5 lakh and a high of Rs 42.3 lakh. Mumbai lists only one apartment at Rs 45 lakh.

Office space ismore expensive, mainly because of its location in prime business districts. Chennai, for example, lists six office properties, at a low of Rs 9.6 lakh and a high of around Rs 2 crore. Hyderabad and Mumbai have on roll one office property each at Rs 15 crore and Rs 7.2 lakh, respectively.

Houses is another category on the site with valuable inputs. Houses cover more area than apartments -- usually 2,400 sq. ft and above. Rates go up with size. Bangalore, with two entries, has Rs 12 lakh for the low reference rate and Rs 22.4 lakh on the higher side. Chennai, with three listings, shows Rs 21 lakh at the low end and Rs 72 lakh at the high end.

Bungalows, described as the most luxurious category in the real estate market, is all about vast areas of built-up space and sprawling gardens and includes luxuries such as servants' quarters. Coinciding with the luxuries are steep prices. In the reference index, Delhi and Pune have one bungalow each for sale. The Delhi bungalow is rated at Rs 54 lakh and the one inPune at Rs 90 lakh.

Those on the look-out for setting up a resort can click on the land/farm option. Generally speaking, the plot size entertained on this site varies from 2,400 square feet to 100 acres. At present, Bangalore lists five plots with a low of Rs 8.4 lakh and a high of Rs 20 lakh. Chennai shows three plots with a low of Rs 30 lakh and a high of Rs 82 lakh. Delhi hosts only one plot at Rs 35 lakh, and Mumbai two at a low of Rs 99,000 and a high of Rs 1.2 lakh.

Explaining how values are updated in the index, Sarma says: ``The reference values are updated based on the available listings on the site. The reference values reflect the minimum and maximum ranges of our growing database on property availabilities. Therefore, they are recalculated on the addition of every availability listing.''

Elaborating on how the site helps the consumers, Sarma says: ``We view the real estate industry as a product-oriented market. Therefore, the reference values provide an average investor with an overview onthe going rates in the marketplace.'' The bottomline is that if a property is overpriced, the customers -- real estate consultants, developers -- are less likely to get a buyer for their property. ``And that determines the genuineness of the prices for the properties we are trying to sell,'' he adds.

With the database of the Website growing, these rates are expected to eventually reflect industry norms more precisely, states Sarma.

RealtiesIndia is a service provided by Sarma & Associates. Its founder, C N Sarma, who has been in the real estate business for more than 20 years, has catered to the needs of real estate promoters, farm land re-sellers and developers in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka throughout his career. Along with his team of experts and with the help of strategic partners, Sarma aims to provide resourceful information on the Indian real estate market as well as facilitate the process of property shopping.

Although quite young in the Web business, the service has received an overwhelmingresponse in spite of its inception difficulties. A confident Sarma says: ``We are in the process of beefing up Website content and identifying partners for providing content and for order fulfillment purposes.''