How influencers are tapping real estate to make their next pile of money

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Mumbai: On 14 November 2022, 28-year-old gaming creator Tanmay Singh, popularly known as ScoutOP, posted a video revealing his “dream house" in Daman. He built this house—close to the Jampore and Devka beaches—over three years, spending over ₹5 crore of his creator income.

While Singh boasts 5.08 million subscribers on YouTube, his ‘house tour’ video generated over twice that number, crossing 11 million views. Recently, Shivamsingh Rajput, a comedy content creator with over 1.43 million subscribers on YouTube, bought a house in Surat, Gujarat, on the west bank of the Tapi river, and posted a video tour of it on 23 June. The video has so far garnered 1.5 million views.

The creator told Mint that he earns around ₹2 crore a year and that he used most of that money on the house and also took out a loan. The property cost him around ₹2.5 crore. “I have ensured that I have the best lighting setup.

I can shoot content at any spot in my house at any time of the day without any assistance with just the click of a button," he explained. That’s a big change for Rajput. “Earlier, when I was just an emerging creator, I would have to spend half an hour arranging a makeshift setup for that picture-perfect look on camera.

I would set up my phone on stacked corrugated food boxes and tape the ring light (used for controlled lighting) on the wall," recalled Rajput, who began his journey on TikTok in 2019, during his first year pursuing a BCom degree. He moved to YouTube after the Chinese app was banned in India in June 2020. Singh and Rajput are not the only creators whose ‘house tours’ have gained traction on the internet.