Housing.com in collaboration with The Times of India, presented the ‘Right To Excellence – Real Estate Summit’ on March 15th, 2024, at the Crowne Plaza in Gurgaon. This summit aimed to convene numerous industry luminaries, market experts, thought leaders, and stakeholders to delve into the future trajectory of the technology and real estate sector in India.
Ram Kirpal is a construction worker in Noida. However, this daily wage earner is not a regular employee or even contractual worker with any real estate company or contractor. He goes back to his native place, Purnea in Bihar, on each harvest season and agriculture continues to be his main occupation. He works on construction sites in Noida only when there is no agricultural work back home. He is part of the bigger problem that the Indian real estate faces – labour shortage! A Track2Realty report.
At the beginning of 2024, as the Indian real estate stakeholders (self-styled industry experts within the realty media landscape) are yet again influence peddling their bullish narrative, the reality check by Track2Realty clearly finds that the sales growth post-Covid has neither been broad based nor democratic. Real estate is yet again emerging as a parking lot of big money post the pandemic, as visible with the off-take of luxury & super luxury despite the stagnant job growth and wage growth.
The input cost escalation has indeed brought the catch 22 situation for the real estate developers in this part of the world. As per the industry estimates, the input cost of various construction raw materials has surged from 20-35 per cent in the last 12-18 months. The property prices in the proportional ratio have not increased and in most of the micro markets across India the prices during the said period are at a standstill.
Post Covid, the Indian real estate is witness to a K-shape recovery where the listed & larger players are increasing their market share at the cost of smaller ones. Prima facie, what sounds like a market-linked reform, have concerns & repercussions that run much deeper. Is the current criterion of assessing a market with fiscal performance justified? Can only a handful of branded developers be the answer to India’s housing woes, questions Track2Realty.
Stock market is generally defined as the “Bull market versus ‘Bear Market’. In real estate, the expression has generally been all about ‘Bullish Market’, ‘Upbeat market’, ‘Wait & Watch Market’, and ‘Pessimist Market’. ‘Bear Market’ as a term has generally not been used in the context of the housing market. Track2Realty questions why? Is it because a ‘Bear Market’ is just not possible in real estate? Or is it because real estate as an asset class has an altogether different means of cost & benefit analysis.
Corporate governance & professionalism seem to be the emerging mantra of survival for Indian real estate. But the man who visualised the need for this decades back, maintains a low profile to not take any credit as the first-mover of institutionalising Indian real estate. As the industry body CREDAI decorates Ravi Puravankara for the lifetime achievement, Ravi Sinha interviews him to understand what goaded this first-mover to adopt corporate governance.
Ramneek Sethi, an IT professional wanted to invest in the stock market. He was keen on real estate stocks keeping in mind its growth potential and India’s increasing urbanisation. However, a meeting with the financial planner changed his mind. The financial planner categorically asked him to stay away from volatile real estate stocks and instead get into the power play through proxies in cement, steel, and other ancillary businesses. Reason: Real estate stocks are not just volatile, but more often than not even defy the principles of fundamental analysis and technical analysis.
Isn’t it ironic that in a housing market like India where the predominant demand is for ready to move houses, this segment too has a record unsold inventory standing. As per the statistics, out of the total 7.85 lakh unsold inventory, nearly 20 per cent are ready to move. Mind you! We are only talking about the top 8 cities of India. A cumulative figure of pan-India unsold ready to move housi9ng inventory would look even more scary.
To say that women workforce in the Indian real estate has broken the proverbial glass ceiling would be stating the obvious. Far from being perceived as a decorative value at the reception only, the women have now stormed into critical areas, from sales to consumer grievances and corporate communication to legal. Many of them have even been into the decision making and the work culture in many of the Grade A real estate companies appear to be gender neutral.