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.
The economists and the real estate analysts are unanimous over the inevitability of the real estate recovery in India. What is nevertheless being debated is when will the sector revive to its normal course of business. What is even more important is to assess what would be the shape of the recovery. In classical economic definition, three of the commonly used recovery shapes are V, U & L shapes. V-Shaped is a strong recovery after the debacle, U-Shaped is a slower and long-drawn recovery, while an L-Shaped aftermath is where the previous peak is not recovered.
Union Budget every year is the time when all the stakeholders of the Indian economy look up to the Finance Minister with optimism. Track2Realty noted that across the industries the wants & needs of the demand & supply side are not as juxtaposed as with the real estate. While the developers lobby hard to get the best deal out of the Union Budget, the buyers have their own set of choices and concerns. The Finance Minister is expected to walk a tightrope to balance the concerns of various stakeholders.
In his budget wish list, Amit Modi, Director, ABA Corp & President (Elect), CREDAI Western UP, points out that the real estate sector in India has been through one of the most difficult periods last year due the pandemic effected slowdown in the economy. While there was an upward trajectory in the last quarter of year 2020, due to correction in prices, availability of affordable home loans and the general realization towards the importance of having an adequate shelter during the pandemic, but to seriously start the process of sector revival, there is an urgent and definitive need for reforms from the forthcoming Budget.
The festive season has traditionally been an active period for real estate sales as many buyers consider Navratri and Diwali an auspicious time to buy property. Like in previous years, developers this year have sweetened property deals – some up-front discounts, or more commonly 0% GST (which is in any case not charged on ready-to-move properties), waived stamp duty and registration charges, free reserved car parking, modular kitchens, etc.
Additionally, the fact that the corpus will be completely professionally-driven including real estate experts, banking or housing finance specialists, it is likely to move more smoothly and in the right direction with little scope for misadventure. These specialists will need to identify such projects that are affordable and middle-income projects and are in need of last-mile funding for completion. The government’s move to relax commercial borrowing for affordable housing is another welcome step.
Let’s get straight into this question, which has been a concern among all stakeholders – financial planners, property owners, investors and prospective buyers – over the last few years. And only because real estate, particularly residential, did not yield the same returns as it did during its Golden Era of the early 2000s.
Year 2018 was a veritable roller-coaster ride for the Indian real estate. Despite signs of recovery across segments, the liquidity crunch – further exacerbated by the NBFC crisis – put all industry stakeholders on tenterhooks.
In India, when the going was smooth a number of leading developers tried to foray into multi-city operations. Most of them had to exit the expansion strategy sooner than later. It rather proved to be the first nail in the coffin for some of these market leaders by size.