The concept of “Shared Economy” got severely tested during the peak of the pandemic. Factors such as uncertain economic conditions resulting in loss of jobs, work from home and the shift of migrant population to their respective hometowns in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak brought the evolving Co-Living sector to an immediate halt.
I often get amused when I get into the details of the industry survey that shouts at the top of its voice – “All is Well”. Some of these industry reports claiming the business to be witness to higher consumer sentiment are based on the feedback of connected parties like developers, banks, financial institutions and private equity players. All in all, it’s a family cycle where everyone is desperate to beg, borrow or steal for sale. The most important stakeholder – the home buyer – whose sentiment is being tracked is better left out in this mutual appreciation club of vested interests.
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 real estate industry stakeholders are debating over the design changes and other functional changes in the housing projects after Coronavirus. An impression is gaining ground that the developers have the realization that the world has changed due to pandemic and they need to alter to fit into the buyers’ needs. An online poll by Track2Realty nevertheless finds that the industry is off the mark when it comes to read the pulse of the buyers. The buyers are not looking for knee jerk design changes but housing to have long term functional changes.
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.
As part of a long-term partnership, Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce & Industry and CONNECT have announced two inaugural events, Middle East Design & Build Week (MEDBW) and Middle East Manufacturing & Technology Expo (MEMT). Both the physical events are scheduled to be held between 5 – 7 December 2022 at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC), UAE.
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.