If the Indian real estate was gasping for breath since long, Cronavirus has further pushed it to the ventilator. Track2Realty in an online poll finds that the challenge is no more limited to the unsold inventory, liquidity crisis & buyers’ reluctance, but to keep the existing buyers stay afloat. Job losses and salary cut threatens to make foreclosure a reality now.
Despite repeated attempts by Track2Realty, none of the developers with projects in the worst hit areas are ready to speak on camera. All of them are rather defiant that the construction ban is unfortunate disruptions and adversely affects the project timelines. The moot point nevertheless is can the builders in their collective consciousness shrug off the responsibility now? Do they wake up only when the NGT slaps the sector with construction ban? Can’t they switch to responsible urbanisation for future generations?These questions may not bother them but what they can’t afford to ignore is whether or not the housing sector in Delhi NCR would be paralysed if the city is not made worth breathing and worth living?” Unfortunately, there are more questions than what any of the stakeholders would like to answer with some honesty.
Multiple Challenges for HFCs Still in Play: The housing finance sector has been facing challenges, which have led to a contraction in spreads, a rise in funding cost and an increased spotlight on their asset-liability mismatches. Such mismatches have resulted in constrained financing from both market-based sources (CPs and NCDs) and banks for many players.
The NRIs from the US, UK, Middle East, South Africa, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore and Mauritius participated in the survey. They were given a mix of open-ended and close-ended questions to assess their investment choice in the Indian property market. The data was then collated by Track2Realty team to read the mood of the NRIs vis-à-vis their investment choice in the Indian property market.
There is a public perception that what has transformed this once non-descript city into thriving metro city is the gulf money since a large number of Kochi residents are working in the gulf region. However, Kochi property market is not being driven by gulf money alone; this could be only a reality in the luxury segment.
The survey clearly suggests marriage is as much a choice for women as mortgage, and marriage is definitely not predestination of home ownership. Even among the married couples the role of the women is changing and they are increasingly getting on the driver’s seat when buying a house.
The greener pastures are mostly defined with numbers and not execution capabilities or business model. For example, the absorption of office space has been upwards of 40 million square feet per annum for the last 3 years. The overall sentiments in this segment look bullish with PE investors also putting in money. As a matter of fact, even in retail real estate the PE investors are bullish and exploring even the Tier II cities having malls with good footfalls, brand mix and strong sales. This is what is enticing the residential developers looking for both the buyers as well as the capital investments.
There is no restriction on the number of properties that NRIs can own in India. However, NRIs obviously need to make informed decisions on such acquisitions. The most important consideration is that of whether the property purchase is for their own or their family’s actual use, or as an investment for rental income and potential capital appreciation.
It is more of bad news than good news for the developers as far as their efforts to entice the NRIs is concerned. The good news is that the outlook of the expat Indians towards the Indian real estate is changing; the recent policy reforms have made them more optimistic about the property market back home. But the bad news is that they are yet not ready to commit for property purchase in India.
Gone are the days when the overnight appreciation of property prices was enough for the fly by night operators to lure the buyers with glossy advertisements. The ROI of the advertising spend by the developers was calculated with the number of phone calls in return. The economic downturn leading to an end of era of quick appreciation, however, changed the market dynamics completely.