When it comes to the recovery of the asset class, the market doesn’t spread its gift with equal generosity. The historic high growth curve of the stock market post Covid crash in March 2020 didn’t make every company’s share valuable. Similarly, in real estate there are certainly some clear winners & losers during the pandemic, finds Track2Realty analysis.
Will the festive season of 2021 change the course of real estate is something that most of the analysts are curious to see. The festive season has just started and it is too early to guesstimate the exact sales volume & value growth at this point of time. But with a closer look at the Indian housing market one can probably vouchsafe that there are more catalysts of optimism than pessimism. How far this optimism is sentiment driven and to what extent the economic fundamentals support the business take-up is something that needs to be evaluated.
It is the story of a debt ridden real estate company that is financially overleveraged; gone beyond execution capabilities; has multi-city penetration; is into multiple businesses; and the promoters are just delaying the inevitable. The developer that you instantly recall is China’s Evergrande. It’s the talk of the town across the built environment of global real estate today. But wait! Has India not been witness to its own Evergrande moment (though on a smaller scale) in the past? Track2Realty speaks to cross section of industry analysts.
The Allahabad High Court has rapped the District Magistrate of Gautam Buddh Nagar for non-compliance of RERA Recovery Certificates (RC). The Court has also directed the DM Suhas LY to appear before the court on October 4 to explain the inaction in the RCs issued by the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) in several cases.
What is icing on the cake for the developers in these smaller towns now is the fact that they are getting the labour force at a much lower cost. Explaining this trend, Sandeep Agrawal, a property broker in Patna says that the labours were getting their daily wages in the Delhi NCR region in the range of INR 350-500, depending upon the project. But now they are more than willing to work at INR 250 in places like Patna, Kanpur, Kochi etc where they are stationed in proximity to their home towns and the cost of living is much lesser, compared to the metro cities.
This raises a fundamental question as to whether wellness is possible only with the luxury housing or affordable housing too can incorporate it. Within the built environment of the Indian real estate it is generally accepted that wellness is an aspiration concept but it can be incorporated into affordable housing as well. This would require focusing on some of the key elements right from the planning stage. Some of the real estate companies with international exposure are now working towards cutting down their carbon footprint apart from focusing on the other aspects of wellness.
A closer look at the way the sector operates indicates that the ground realities are different than what is being anticipated post this historic judgment. The Supreme Court order has hence raised more questions than settled the answers that could goad the sector to best practices in the business. The court order touches upon some of the grey areas like “long & expensive legal battle” that the buyers have to go through. It nevertheless doesn’t offer any solution for the same. The fact remains that the long & expensive legal battle is the primary cause of home buyers’ suffering in silence at the hands of the builders.
The cost of doing business per square feet has always been challenging in the top 10 cities of India. The ever increasing migration for jobs in these cities have made the housing affordability even bigger challenge. Critics are not cynical when they question as to what extent and till when these cities will continue to be filled up like a soda bottle. Aren’t our metro cities on the verge of a population blast? Come 2021 and Track2Realty analysis believes the infamous Coronavirus in a strange way has shown the way forward.
There are multiple factors why the home sales in monsoons are subdued. One obvious reason is that the Indians traditionally don’t make any high value purchases after Akshay Tirtiya and before Ganesh Chaturthi. Since a home is the most emotional & aspirational product; is life’s biggest purchase; and is in most of the case for the lifetime; the Indians prefer to wait till the beginning of the festive season. Inauspicious period of Shraddh and Pitripaksh also falls during the monsoon season, where the traditional belief is that any new purchase will invite the curse of the ancestors.
With the vaccination drive in full swing, there is renewed optimism, and the country’s economic momentum seems to be picking up. In particular, the real estate sector is witnessing new interest from homebuyers as seen in Q1 FY22, spurred due to positive government policies, initiatives taken by the developers and pent-up consumer demands. This is a new phase of real estate growth, innovation, and investment, contributing towards making India the world’s fastest-growing major economy.