In the late 2010, buyers were largely in the age groups of 35-45 years and 45-55 years, but the share of homebuyers in the 25-35 years age group was minimal. However, improved tax benefits motivated more working youths in this age bracket to opt for home loans. Millennials predominantly favoured paying EMIs for buying a home over the ‘dead’ expense of rentals.
According to the report titled “The Herald of a New Chapter: Student Accommodation in India”, the Student Housing/Co-Living space is expected to witness an investment worth USD 700 million and an addition of 0.6 million beds by 2023 across the country. The Student Housing segment is witnessing rapid growth across all the major markets in the country and expected to witness a growth of 36 percent between 2019 to 2023.
India’s commercial office segment has been the favourite asset class of institutional investors over the years. They have allocated USD 17.6 bn in the form of direct investments during 2005-2019. JLL research indicates that 294 mn sq. ft. of office stock would be eligible for REIT. This would translate to an additional investment opportunity of USD 35 bn in near term.
CapitaLand’s developments underway in India include 17.9 million sq ft of business park space in Bangalore, Chennai, Gurgaon, Hyderabad and Pune when completed. Another 7.2 million sq ft through forward purchases have been signed up and are under construction. This includes IT parks in Mumbai and Hyderabad, a seventh warehouse at Arshiya Free Trade Warehousing Zone, Panvel, near Navi Mumbai, and BlueRidge 3, an IT/ITES Special Economic Zone development in Hinjewadi Phase 1 in Pune. CapitaLand is also building up a logistics asset portfolio in India with 4.3 million sq ft planned for development.
The consecutive rate cuts have been a succor for the real estate sector thereby making it the most opportune time for buying homes. This has been reflected in the continuous improvement in the residential sales that registered a 14% Y-o-Y growth in sales during January- September 2019 as compared to the corresponding period in the previous year.
Bengaluru maintains the top position in office space leasing, with a share of 30% in gross leasing during Jan-September 2019. Bengaluru recorded gross absorption of 12.1 million sq feet during Jan-September 2019, a 7% increase from same period last year, as occupiers continue to ramp up. IT-BPM and technology companies together accounted for 36%. Engineering and manufacturing sector’s leasing accounted for 18% share. Occupiers are preleasing space, and even taking up space in refurbished grade B buildings, due to tight vacancies in the market amidst healthy demand. The city’s vacancy stood at 8.8% at the end of Q3 2019.
Colliers International foresees robust demand from GICs, with leasing by GICs across six major cities in India to be in the range of 32.5 million sq ft between 2019 and 2021. Over 2014-2018, occupiers leased about 53.0 million sq ft of office space in multi-tenanted buildings for their GICs. Bengaluru led the demand with about 20.1 million sq ft, followed by Delhi NCR and Hyderabad. Further, we found that companies from the engineering, energy and manufacturing sectors favoured Bengaluru, which accounted for 32% of GIC demand between 2014-2018.
Among the major factors contributing to the escalating ‘claustrophobia effect’ of shrinking apartment sizes, demand for affordable homes in metros tops the list. Also, buyers are increasingly looking to avail the government’s credit subsidy benefits for affordable housing. These require a home to be priced
There is no simple yardstick to calculate the exact number of units and the actual funds that are needed to complete them. Each delayed project is different in size, stage of completion, city and micro-location, etc. Also, various methodologies are used to reach an approximate number. After considering the government’s caveats – non-inclusion of projects under NCLT, and inclusion of mid and affordable units only, ANAROCK has shortlisted units launched in 2013 or before.
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.