How Much Does Real Estate App Development Cost? Complete Pricing Breakdown

The real estate business has been a heavy, capital-intensive, and investment-oriented sector. Today, the mobile app development services are highly preferred by startup and mid-level real estate firms. If you are also planning to, then there are a few questions that must have come to your mind:

• What is the real estate app development cost?
• What budget should you set to develop an app like Zillow or Realtor.com?
• How long does it take to build a real estate app?

Real estate app development is about research, planning, budgeting, and execution. Among these, the costing factor plays a major role. It will influence other parameters as well.

Well, the app development cost varies depending on the features, complexity, and tech stack. From simple listing apps to fully featured real estate apps, cost is the key driver.

In this blog, we will break down the development costs, timelines, and factors that affect the cost, so you can plan your real estate app smartly and launch it faster.

How Much Does Real Estate Application Development Cost?

One question that occurs in the mind of every startup founder, while planning a new real estate app, is, “What is the cost to develop a real estate app?”

The answer to this question depends on the type of app you want to build, whether an MVP, a simple app, a complex app, or an advanced AI-assisted real estate app.

In this section, we will share the real estate app development cost breakdown and the expected timeline.

Note: The cost of developing a real estate app and the timeline may vary depending on your requirements.

Expert Insights: If you are a startup founder planning to build a real estate app, we recommend you go for an MVP (minimum viable product) to validate your idea. The real estate MVP development cost is considerably lower than building a fully featured app. To do this, you can connect with an MVP development service provider.

What are the Different Types of Real Estate Apps and Their Costs?

The cost of building a real estate app depends on many factors. As an entrepreneur, you must understand the different real estate business models for startups and the development costs.

To help you with this, we have included below the most common types of real estate apps, along with details of their functionality and a breakdown of estimated costs.

1. Property Search Apps

This type of real estate app is built for users to search for properties either for sale or rent. It helps users view properties according to location, budget, and other factors.

2. Real Estate Marketplace App

It is another type of real estate app that helps users search for properties. While users can also support transactions such as buying, selling, and renting properties.

3. Home Improvement Apps

Another type of real estate app that homeowners, tenants, or contractors use to plan, manage, and execute improvement projects. These apps digitally connect the customers and service providers. So, it unlocks tools to visualize, plan a budget, and hire professionals.

4. Property Management Apps

Another type of real estate app is the property management app. This app simplifies and automates the complex tasks involved in managing rent collection, tenant screening, financial reporting, and many other operations. In short, these apps streamline operations for property managers and landlords.

5. Real Estate Investment Apps

Real estate investment apps help users find and invest in real estate properties, including rental and commercial properties. These apps provide the feature of paying small amounts of money, known as fractional investing.

6. Virtual Tour Apps

Another type of real estate app is the virtual tour application. These applications enable users to tour properties virtually, eliminating the necessity for in-person viewings.

7. Real Estate Agent Apps

The real estate agents’ app allows agents to showcase virtual 3D tours of properties, manage documentation, and streamline various processes. This app helps reduce the time, effort, and paperwork agents require in real time. Additionally, it assists real estate agents in managing their businesses, including scheduling appointments, organizing client information, and tracking commissions.

8. Property Mortgage & Financing App

These apps simplify access to home loans by connecting users with multiple financial institutions. Moreover, these apps allow startups to offer buyers quick loan comparisons, eligibility checks, and document uploads in one place. Users can receive loan estimates based on income, credit score, and financial history, while lenders streamline approvals directly through the app.

What Factors Affect Real Estate App Development Cost?

So many factors, including real estate app functionality, platform, tech stack, and others, directly affect real estate app development costs. Additionally, selecting an experienced real estate mobile app development company can significantly impact both the cost and time of the app development process.

In this section, we have mentioned the main factors impacting the cost of designing a real estate app, which will help you properly plan and make informed decisions.

1. App Features & Functionality

The real estate app features and functionalities are important in determining the overall development cost. Some of the basic features, like login, search filters, and property listings, are easy to execute.

However, the advanced functionalities like AI-assistance, AR/VR tours, chatbots, and other personalized features can significantly increase the cost. So, your choice of real estate app development functionalities and complexity level affects the cost thoroughly.

2. Platform Choices

The appropriate choice of platform for your app influences the overall cost. Your real estate app development cost increases when you plan to launch on both iOS and Android. Both these falls under the native app development solution. However, you can opt for cross-platform technologies, which reduce the cost of each platform. So, you can make the right choice strategically.

3. UI/UX Design

Next is the real estate app’s UI/UX designing need. Having a good design will directly impact the user engagement and the cost. So, it is important for a seamless experience; a real estate app can have high-value transactions. Well, the app design cost varies according to your needs and features.

For instance, if you demand a customized solution, you can deliver a highly interactive design with smooth navigation. So, this will require a big budget. Also, the advanced features that align with the current app design trends will impact the overall development costs. Additionally, you can also use a basic template-based design for a real estate app.

4. App Development Team

Now, coming to the most important factors of the app development team. It directly impact the cost of real estate app development. Because the location of the develoeprs differ regin-to-region.

Moreover, hiring app developers from countries like North America, the UK, and Western Europe will typically cost more (especially for startups). In contrast, Asian countries like India and Eastern Europe have lower charges and are more small business-friendly.

So, you can access a large pool of skilled and experienced developers at an affordable budget. To make it simpler, here is the tabular presentation of the different developers’ roles’ hourly rate across the countries.

Note: The above hourly rates are as per our research; they may vary depending on the team’s expertise, project type, and other factors.

5. Technology Stack & Integrations

Choosing the tech stack is another factor that directly affects the cost of real estate app development. From picking the native, cross-platform, or web-based solutions, the right tech selection is critical. Because it has important future success parameters for your real estate app. So, it is reliable to make the right decision as any wrong decision will directly affect money, time, and effort.

Well, the right tech stack sets the app’s functionality and scalability to better position and make a seamless launch. Additionally, you can even integrate advanced technologies like AI/ML, AR/VR, and others. Thus, it can improve the advanced features and deliver a better end-user experience.

Advanced Technology

Note: The above cost is given for a basic app idea as per our work experience.

6. Third-Party APIs & Tools

Obviously, you have to get along with the integration of the third-party services and APIs. Google Maps or payment gateway integration, or other tools integration, also increases development costs.

7. App Maintenance & Updates

The continuous maintenance and updates are inseparable. It will ensure the app’s smooth performance, security, and compatibility. Having the after-launch maintenance process requires diverse tasks. It includes bug fixing, updating APIs, improving app speed, and adding new features as per feedback and the emergence of trends.

For startups, skipping maintenance and updates can lead to a poor user experience. As a result, you may have to face potential revenue loss. Well, the maintenance and updates costs range from 15% to 25% of the initial development cost annually. Therefore, these costs must be included in your overall budget when planning your real estate app.

Pro Tip: It is advisable to use the agile app development approach for a successful real estate app. So, it will allow startups to release updates and new features iteratively.

Also, the regular maintenance and incremental improvements help keep the app secure, responsive, and aligned with user needs. You can reduce the long-term costs and improve user satisfaction.

What is the Estimated Cost of Popular Real Estate Apps?

You might anticipate the cost of the real estate app development by analyzing the existing big apps. When looking at popular apps across different regions, it is good to consider their cost. So, below are some top real estate apps and their approximate range.

Note: The above famous real estate apps’ cost is driven by our research and market analysis. So, the actual development cost may vary depending on the market and other internal factors.

What are the Hidden Costs in Real Estate App Development?

When planning and calculating the real estate development cost, the startups often focus on features, design, and development. On top of them all, there are a few hidden factors that can also increase the overall development cost. Hence, you can’t risk your app by ignoring these factors; it can significantly increase the cost of building a real estate mobile app.

Here, we have mentioned some important hidden costs that one can keep in mind. It will help in estimating while planning the real estate app development budget:

1. App Store Fees & Compliance Costs

During the planning phase, you must familiarize yourself with the policies, submission reviews, compliance, and annual developer fees. For the Google Play Store and the App Store, it will help you overcome the hidden costs.

• Annually, the developer account costs at $99/year for App Store and $25 (one-time) for Google Play Store.
• Secondly, the in-app purchases or subscriptions may be subject to platform commission fees up to 30%.

2. Server & Hosting Charges

The real estate app’s price estimation depends significantly on property images, videos, maps, and location data. Thus, it requires a strong server infrastructure. So, you must need;

• Cloud storage for media-heavy content
• Scalable and stable servers for High-traffic spikes
• Poor backend infrastucture decline the user experience

3. Regular Maintenance & Security Updates

After launch, your app requires regular updates to fix bugs, upgrade operating systems (OS), and address security vulnerabilities. So, the regular maintenance ensures that the app stays competitive and offer secure environment.

• The OS updates in both iOS and Android) Demand frequent compatibility checks and validation.
• Enhance the security threats that require ongoing upgrades and feature enhancements.

4. Marketing & User Acquisition

Developing the app is the first step, which comes with many in-house challenges, but the real struggle starts in digital marketing. You need to market your business to targeted users. For that matter, creating buzz about your app across multiple channels requires a strategic approach.

• Paid campaigns, such as Google Ads and social media advertising, can quickly deliver impact.
• The real estate competition increases the cost-per-click for ads
• If you go for influencer marketing or affiliate campaigns, it can add recurring costs as well

5. Legal & Regulatory Compliance

As the real estate apps have their core in property transactions, contracts, and sensitive user data. Accordingly, complying with the legal guidelines of the real estate industry is a must. It will help you to stay compliant with local laws is essential and prevents any issues regarding that.

• Follow the data privacy laws (like GDPR and CCPA) demand investment in compliance.
• Real estate regulations vary across regions and markets
• Contracts and terms of service require professional drafting

How Can Startups Reduce Real Estate App Development Cost?

In the above section, we have mentioned the hidden factors that affect the overall real estate app development costs. But do you know, there are smart ways to reduce the real estate app development cost.

In this section, we will discuss some factors that will help you reduce the cost of real estate app development.

1. Build MVP First, Not a Full-Scale App

Instead of starting with a full-featured app, develop a minimum viable product (MVP) that focuses only on the core features. This approach will help you validate your idea at minimal cost while collecting valuable user feedback before scaling up.

2. Use Cross-Platform Frameworks (Flutter, React Native)

Developing separate native apps for iOS and Android will double the cost. Instead, opt for cross-platform frameworks like Flutter or React Native, which will help you create one code for multiple platforms, reducing both time and cost.

3. Leverage Ready-Made APIs Instead of Building from Scratch

Why create something from scratch when a solution already exists? Integrating pre-built APIs for payments, maps, or others is far more cost-effective than building custom solutions for your real estate app. Pre-built APIs will reduce the development cost, hours, and speed up the time to market.

4. Outsource to Cost-Effective but Skilled Regions

Another factor that will impact the cost of real estate app development is hiring developers. Outsourcing developers from the UK, US, or Australia can be expensive, while hiring a skilled team from regions like Eastern Europe, India, or other countries offers the same expertise with a minimum cost, making it ideal for startups.

5. Adopt Agile Development to Prioritize Features

With an agile approach, you can gradually break down your real estate project into smaller prints, focus on the most impactful features, and progressively release updates. This will ensure you are not overspending on unnecessary features early, while allowing flexibility to adapt as your app grows.

6. Use Cloud-Based Infrastructure for Scaling

Another factor that will affect the real estate app development cost is the cloud services. Using traditional cloud services will come with huge costs and maintenance. Opting for cloud services like AWS, Google Cloud, or other similar services will allow you to pay only for what you use. This is a cost-friendly way to scale your real estate app as your user base grows.

Pro Tip: To build a successful real estate app, it is advised to begin with core features, scale smartly, and choose technologies that maximize the value while remaining cost-effective.

Develop a Real Estate App within Your Budget!

We hope you get a complete idea for developing a real estate app. The development process involves strategic planning around costs, timelines, and features. The complexity of your real estate app, choice of technology, and team structure are all factors that affect the overall real estate app development cost. Startups can reduce the development cost by focusing on MVP, leveraging cross-platform tools, and adopting agile methodologies.

At aPurple, we help startups in the real estate app development process, guiding them to make informed decisions and plan for long-term maintenance and scalability. By understanding the factors, startups can launch an app that meets user expectations without exceeding their budget.

With aPurple, you can confidently plan and build a real estate app that balances cost, quality, and functionality.

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Author

Mahil Jasani

Mahil Jasani has been the thriving COO of aPurple. He always strives to enlighten readers about unique strategies for startup growth. With his decade of experience in the industry, he helps startups and enterprises with custom digital solutions to drive better ROI. His experience provides leadership navigation for each project's discovery to success journey!