Indian Realty Expectations After Festival Season

Real estate being a sector which severely impacts the overall economic growth of the nation, continues to be an important part in the government’s announced relief packages and reforms to combat the COVID induced slowdown. To begin with ‘force majeure’ came in as a first breather which granted timeline extensions to projects owing to the delay caused by the lockdown.

It was later followed by apex bank declaring repo rate cuts and now the most recent ones being stamp duty reduction in some states & increased tax rebate on the differential between circle rate and agreement value for projects priced up to Rs. 2 crore rupees.

These slew of measures announced clearly highlight the government’s intent to boost the real estate sector from not just supply-side but demand end as well. Relief granted to both homebuyers and developers would mean each of them coming in mid-way to settle around a property agreement.

India is banking on infrastructure and real estate to become a growth driver for the economy that is headed for a double-digit contraction in 2020-21. The virtual global investor roundtable recently organised by the Ministry of Finance and the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund was attended by global investors who represent regions like the US, Europe, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Korea, Japan & Middle East, and have an asset under management of $6 trillion. All these measures when strategically practised augurs hope for a quicker revival. This will be making real estate an attractive investment option.

Kapil Kapur, Director, Sales and Strategy, Bullmen Realty explains why there is an urgent need for recovery momentum in real estate and said, “Real estate’s linkages with a vast range of industries make it recovery pivotal. Some of the trends that are likely to shape up include: Residential and commercial segment is going to be contributing differently based on the geography of the region, and Tier II-III cities due to the reverse migration are all set to open new avenues for organized retail and integrated living. It is an outcome of lockdown that realty market is witnessing offers like never before such as property rescue for struck projects, transferring of funds, cashback, flexible payment plans etc., apart from the festive offers which are an annual occurrence”.

The recent announcement about tax relief from FM comes just at the right time to drive pent-up demand for mid-segment and luxury housing. It will be incentivizing developers for curtailing their prices and selling of their stalled inventory to avail the tax benefits.

Developers had come forward during this festive season with never seen before deals, owing to the auspiciousness of the festive season. They would be utilizing the numbers achieved during this time as a yardstick for strategizing next quarter’s sales plans.

The Oct-Dec quarter will be a big step ahead from the wait-and-watch mode adopted by realtors during the first few days of the unlock. The sentiment of buyers is reforming, and only the right kind of reinforcement will encourage them to invest in a high-end purchase like real estate.

Value for money, the security of investment, assured results, timely deliveries, legacy in business being some of the standard qualifiers to choose a developer and its project over the other options present in the market.