The Co-Founder and COO at Square Yards, one of India’s foremost real estate platforms, Kanika Gupta Shori, has opined that while real estate sector recovery is still some time away, it can be said that the Indian housing market has bucked the economic impact of the pandemic with elan while remaining strong at the end of the year, giving rise to ample scope for optimism in the bargain.
Shori also added that early this year, the sector was going through a more cautious and steady recovery and all of a sudden, COVID-19 broke out nationwide, changing the whole game altogether. Housing sales came down by a whopping 80% for Q1 and Q2 2020 while construction activity came completely to a halt while the GDP contracted by a whopping 23.9% and 7.5% in these quarters respectively as well. The Government of India did come up with financial incentives for the realty sector and reduction in stamp duty on immovable property transactions by 2-3% in States like Karnataka and Maharashtra led to better buying sentiments, helping developers to clear off inventory and liquidate idle stocks.
The CLSS (Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme) was extended for affordable housing till March 2021 with an infusion of Rs. 70,000 crore and last-mile funding of Rs. 20,000 crore for stressed realty developers and an extra outlay of Rs. 18,000 crore for PMAY, offering much-needed relief to the industry according to her. She has also highlighted other positive measures including moratoriums, construction premium cuts, tax deductions, and project timeline deferrals.
Based upon reports, Q3 2020 witnessed 35,000+ units sold in India’s top 7 cities in the affordable housing segment, indicating growth of 85% from the earlier quarter while sales figures came back to 80-90% of pre-COVID figures for most developers. 19,865 units were launched at this time, indicating a quarter on quarter increase of 58% and 43% came in the price band below Rs. 45 lakh. Realty players digitized their businesses successfully while signing up with platforms like Square Yards for making purchases simpler, more transparent, and credible courtesy tools like 3D walkthroughs, virtual tours, multiple gateways for payments, and digital signatures among others.
Constant home buyer feedback also enabled investments in new business strategies aligning with the current preferences of buyers. Housing sales went up by two times on a quarter on quarter basis and new projects sold out within just two weeks. The pandemic has made owning a home more important while demand went up due to easier and more affordable real estate purchases owing to low home loan interest rates, attractive payment plans, and corrections in property prices. The nation is also economically turning around in sectors like automobiles, agriculture, consumer durables, and FMCG with the 2022 growth forecast improving to 19% as well. This has augured well for real estate with more fence-sitters looking to tap into never-before-seen real estate opportunities. Turnaround times between conversions and inquiries reduced drastically across online portals as well. Real estate had a stellar performance in Q3 with unsold inventory coming down and the silver lining is that buyers are tapping into the low prices of property owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. The sector has thus successfully weathered the storm and ended the year on a high note according to Shori.
For a detailed report on this read the articles we were featured in:
The Financial Express – https://bit.ly/3ieuQCY
Published Date: January 13, 2021
