Real estate continues to be preferred asset class for investment; Residential realty consumer outlook cautiously optimistic for coming six months: Housing.com & NAREDCO Survey

 Discounts and Flexi Payment scheme acts as growth levers for homebuyers

by Shrutee K

Mumbai, July 2021: Real estate continues to be the preferred asset class for investment in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, but majority of homebuyers want discounts along with flexible payment options as an incentive, according to the Housing.com and NAREDCO survey.

The real estate portal conducted the survey between January to June this year of more than three thousand consumers.

According to the survey findings, real estate is the preferred mode of investment for 43 per cent (35% last yr) of respondents, followed by stocks 20 per cent (15% last yr), fixed deposit 19 percent (22% last yr) and gold 18 per cent (28% last yr).

"The health crisis has reinforced the importance of home ownership across the world. As a result, the residential real estate market is not only witnessing fresh demand from first time homebuyers but also from a lot of consumers who are upgrading to bigger apartments," said Mr. Dhruv Agarwala, Group CEO, Housing.com, Makaan.com and PropTiger.com.

"This demand increase generated post COVID, aided by rock bottom housing prices and historically low interest rates on home loans, has helped residential real estate developers to successfully navigate through the tough economic situation caused by this pandemic," Mr. Agarwala added. 

Commenting on the survey findings, NAREDCO President & Founder & MD Hiranandani Group, Dr. Niranjan Hiranandani said: “while emphasizing on the fact that the demand for Housing is inherent, he opined that, “Value of owning a home has been reinforced by the Covid 19 pandemic crisis with the renewed preferences. Integrated township living will garner traction as it offers holistic lifestyle all at one stop destination and also offers work near home opportunities. As the economic recovery is scaling up gradually in backdrop of festive tailwinds, buoyant capital markets, softening of home loan interest rates, record high foreign reserve & FDI increasing employment rate and optimistic demand impetus. Slash in GST and Tax benefits will go long way in strengthening sustainable demand and built on signals positive consumer confidence index for H2 FY 21-22”. 

Among other key findings, the majority of the respondents (71 per cent) feel that flexible payment plans and discounts will provide much-needed financial aid during current times and drive them to make purchase decisions.

Strong housing sales in Maharashtra's two key markets -- Mumbai and Pune -- suggest that stamp duty reduction by the state government did play an important role in stimulating demand during the September 2020 to March 2021 period.

"Builders' margins for under construction properties have reduced due to increase in construction costs and land prices in some cities. Therefore, there is little scope for reduction in basic selling price (BSP). However, builders have been offering flexible payment plans and discounts in some cases to attract customers," said Mr. Mani Rangarajan,GroupCOO, Housing.com, Makaan.com and PropTiger.com.

"The housing market has shown great resilience during the second wave of COVID infections with demand and supply both growing during April-June 2021 compared to same period last year. The survey shows that buyers’ sentiments have improved since June and people have started searching properties with renewed vigour. We expect demand to remain strong during the festive season," Mr. Rangarajan added.

Mr. Rangarajan stated that State governments should reduce stamp duty on registration of properties to encourage homebuyers. 

The survey found that economic and income outlook for the coming six months is more optimistic as compared to H1 2020.

The sentiments have been less impacted this year given that uncertainty is lower as compared to last year. Also lockdowns have been more selective along with vaccine availability.

"While the second wave did see homebuyers shying away from making a purchase, subsiding coronavirus cases has seen buyers resume their home searches a lot quicker than after the previous lockdown period," the report said.

As expected, prospective homebuyers are now taking into account nearby healthcare infrastructure for selecting a property.

Recreational spaces and daycare centres have also made it to the list of top amenities that buyers look for.

With corporates adopting work-from-home and hybrid work policies, homebuyers are expressing interest in looking for larger homes.

Traffic on real estate portals for searching properties has gone up due to an acceleration in the use of digital tools during this pandemic.

About Housing.com:Founded in 2012 Housing.com is owned by Elara Technologies, the country’s only full stack real estate platform that also owns Makaan.com and PropTiger.com. Elara Technologies is controlled by Australia-based Real Estate Australia (REA) Group Limited. Housing.com is India’s most innovative real estate advertising platform for homeowners, landlords, developers, and real estate brokers. The company offers the largest selection of verified listings for new homes, resale homes, rentals, and co-living spaces in India through a trained team of data collectors, analysts, and auditors. Backed by strong research and analytics, the company’s experts provide comprehensive real estate services that cover advertising and marketing, sales solutions for real estate developers, personalised search, virtual viewing, AR&VR content, home loans, end-to-end transaction services and post-transaction services to consumers for both buying and renting. Elara has a national presence with 14 offices across India. It’s corporate office is located in Gurugram, Haryana.

Housing Research is part of Housing.com. As the dynamicity of the Indian residential real estate sector solicits a keen understanding of the market, both on the online and offline platforms, Housing Research, aims to bring matchless insights through its unparalleled database and market intelligence, to unfold the nuances of the Indian real estate sector in its sought-after periodic industry insights and publications.

For further details about the Company, please visit http://www.housing.com/.

About NAREDCO:National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO) was established as an autonomous self-regulatory body in 1998 under the aegis of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Govt. of India. It is in this year that the Government of India redrafted the National Housing & Habitat Policy, giving due importance to the Housing and Real Estate sector, thereby declaring housing for all citizens by the year 2010. The Indian housing and real estate sectors and the allied industries hailed the establishment of NAREDCO, as the apex national body for the real estate industry and visualized it as a single platform where Government, industry and public would discuss various problems and opportunities face to face which would result in speedy resolution of issues. It was formed with the mandate to induce transparency and ethics in real estate business and transform the unorganized Indian real estate sector into a matured and globally competitive business sector.

The National Real Estate Development Council functions as Development & Promotion Council for housing & real estate sector in India and strives to be the collective force influencing and shaping the real estate industry. It seeks to be the leading advocate of developing standards for efficient, effective, and ethical real estate business practices, valued by all stakeholders of real estate sector and viewed by them as crucial to their success. NAREDCO works to create and sustain an environment conducive to the growth of real estate industry in India, partnering industry and government alike through advisory and consultative processes.