Independent homes, seem to have crawled their way back into the minds of the home-buying audience as a preferred residential option. As per Square Yards research, a growth of 14 percent was noted in the demand for these units in Q4, 2021 as compared to Q1, 2021. Let’s have a look at some of the plausible reasons behind it.
In the pre-pandemic years, as the economy was majorly driven by the millennial working population, the idea of settling in top cities, mainly near offices majorly revolved around renting a house rather than “owning one”. The flexibility offered by rented apartments was unmatchable and provided the young working population the liberty to move to different cities in search of lucrative jobs without compromising on extra bucks to be spent. However, with the COVID crisis hitting the economy, rental housing came to a standstill.
The evolving housing requirements in the pandemic era has meant an affinity of home buyers for low-saturation projects and locations. In addition, the realty market has been flooded with millennials looking to buy a home that caters to their changing needs as “work-from-home” culture gained prominence. Thus, space became a major factor determining home purchases.
All these factors seem to have tilted the demand trends in favour of independent homes that cater to both the requirements of space and exclusivity. Data with Square Yards research also reinforced this trend wherein a 14 percent increase in the demand was noted for independent homes in Q4, 2021 as compared to Q1. Moreover, the demand graph displayed a consistent upward curve Q-o-Q throughout the year 2021.
Southern cities lead the demand for independent homes!
Southern cities such as Hyderabad and Bangalore have always displayed an affinity for more open housing concepts and hence plotted developments and independent homes have always seen traction here. However, with the influx of the IT industry and the corresponding workforce, apartments had gained popularity in the last decade. Now with Covid and related norms of work-from-home and social distancing becoming the hard reality, apartment projects seem to be losing its sheen again. At least, property search trends for the city during 2021 indicated the same.
Hyderabad noted a significant rise of 27 percent in the demand for independent homes in the year 2021. Independent homes recorded a consistent growth trajectory Q-o-Q as searches for apartments fell gradually. What was interesting to note was that most of these searches were concentrated for projects in peripheral localities of the city. The locations namely ECIL, Dammaiguda, Attapur, Kukatpally, and Nagaram were among the most searched by home buyers on a lookout for independent homes.
A similar demand trend was observed for Bangalore too. The city recorded a rise of 20 percent in demand for independent homes since Q1, 2021. Bangalore too shares a similar history as far as how the residential landscape has developed in the city over the years. Central parts of the city still house independent residential options as opposed to apartment projects that are predominantly concentrated in the IT zones.
Demand noted in 2021 was largely for locations outside the periphery of the main city. These included Margondanahalli, Vijayanagar, Whitefield, Ramamurthy Nagar.
Were the search trends uniform in the other top cities as well?
Unlike the southern cities namely Bengaluru and Hyderabad, where the demand for independent homes comprised about half of the total searches in the last quarter of 2021, the other cities presented a different story. However, there was a gradual increase in demand for independent homes in cities such Noida, Gurugram, Pune, and MMR which registered a rise of 3-5% since quarter 1 of 2021 except Pune.
In Pune, the share (in terms of online searches) of independent homes jumped from 7% in Q1, 2021 to 19% in Q4, 2021. This was anticipated by most developers as the MMR is already saturated in terms of land availability and population.
With safety, health, and hygiene taking priority in the pandemic-hit world and the “work-from-home” culture being already accepted as the normal scenario, homebuyers who once restrained from investing in the peripheral regions of MMR stepped into the market with Pune being the center of attraction.
Locations namely Chinchwad, Lohegaon, Pimple Gurav, Baner, and Hadapsar were most searched in view of owning “independent houses” in Pune. Thus, clearly delineating the preference of the majority of home buyers to go in for “spacious homes” in the outskirts of the city within the mid-segment category.
Is the affinity for independent homes transitory?
Given the prevailing market scenario, which way the home buyers sentiments will sway seem a little dubious as of now. With few offices reopening in a full-fledged manner and the major entities still resorting to either “work-from-home” culture or a hybrid model, home buyers, for now, seem to have a plethora of choices. Such market dynamics, no doubt further make space for a flexible approach on behalf of majority of the buyers, where few might look for rented accommodations in proximity to their workplace while others might prefer investing in the outskirts or peripherals of the city.
With the home owning sentiments pinned on “spacious residential units in accordance with COVID induced challenges” gaining prominence, no doubt, independent homes for now appear like a prudent choice for many buyers. And unless the realtors come up with more suitable offerings where the residential units are tweaked and designed as per COVID norms, the transient demand for independent homes might continue to drive demand in the residential markets of top cities in the upcoming months.
