03 , March , 2022
By: REALTYDEKHO DESK
The waves of Covid-19 have almost come to an end but as a matter of fact, we still don’t know how many waves are still out there waiting to knock our doors. But with majority of masses being vaccinated, one thing is for sure that sooner or later, pandemic will bite the dust and we will have to bite off more than we can chew to embrace a post-Covid lifestyle. Therefore, to reconnoitre the realty market, Realty Dekho Team interacts with Renu Singh, President, Sales & Marketing, Spaze Group to take cognizance of the realty market, work from home movements, commercial real estate growth pattern and about investors’ sentiments in the post lockdown era. Here are the excerpts.
Realty Dekho (RD): India’s real estate sector is emerging out of a highly dull phase after two waves of the Coronavirus pandemic. Is it the right time to invest in property now?
Renu Singh (RS): Today’s era is of RERA era and yes, undoubtedly this is the most appropriate time to invest in real estate in various strings. As for the buyers who can afford it, the crisis became a good opportunity to upgrade into a bigger space or diversify their investment portfolio by buying real estate at much more affordable prices. Property prices are favourable, home loan interest rates are at decades low, plenty of options are there in both ready-to-move-in and under-construction properties.
Since the investors and end-users have done a lot of holding on to their capitals and could not reap any monetary benefits, the yield of interest and capital appreciation are due to their funds lying dead with them for a long time.
Also, Post covid investors coming out very bold and have a clear vision to invest as they believe the best security for the family is Investing in the property.
RD: Who can be the prospective buyers in the current market?
RS: The prospective buyers in the current market can surely be both Investors & End Users. They both have their own perspective to put their money into this industry since both have their needs to earn the ROI, Appreciation, Capital Gain, Long term Assert and value of their money and their residual aspiration satisfied. This is a good time to buy real estate.
The sentiments of end-users/ buyers are also on a high now as they can expect and already experiencing the best possible deals and discounts.
RD: How much is the scope for Negotiation post Lockdown?
RS: As far as negotiation is concerned buyer need to assess the market rate and returns of the property in previous years and then Compare other projects with the same configuration in the same or similar neighbourhoods, to decide if there are better offers, view, amenities, and facilities available at a lower or same price range. If there are other projects in the same locality that are lying vacant and are litigation free, this is your chance to pick the best one. However, do not compromise on the construction quality and delivery timeline, just because of the cost benefits. While there may be several deals available in the market and the scope for negotiations is high, homebuyers should do their due diligence well as now may not be a good time to take risks.
Immense, developers understand the need of the hour as their money is stuck in the unsold inventory for a larger span of time and they want to liquidate them to move their cycles. Hence, the buyers can negotiate with them across the table and can be the possible beneficiary of the post lockdown era.
As far as the quantum of negotiation is concerned, this will be the breakeven point between the buyer/investor and developer/builder.
RD: In a post lockdown era, what kind of scenario of the Realty Market are you anticipating?
RS: Bold market with bold decisions. The decision, not anticipation.
The anticipation pertaining to the scenario of the real estate market is very positive and optimistic. The market will spike up at its all-time high since the urge of investing for the investors and buying a home for end-users are at its peak which ultimately caters to the need of liquidating the existing inventory by the developers and builders.
Also, we can see that the real estate sector is on the up and witnessing the highest number of new launches in Delhi NCR. On 25th Feb, in the 2 days Urban Development conclave it was announced that Gurugram has the highest number of new launches of Real estate which is 51 percent of the entire NCR region.
RD: The pandemic has turbocharged e-commerce and work-from-home movements, reshaped the markets, and created winners and losers across commercial real estate sectors. What will this mean for investors?
RS: For investors working from home movements, in my opinion, is never a preferred idea. The across-table discussion is the most suitable and result-oriented way of proceeding with a deal as it enables a buyer to negotiate, understand the intention and perspective of the seller. From the perspective of the seller, he understands the financial eligibility and the actual requirement of the product to determine the eligibility of the buyer.
However, this e-commerce driven modus-operandi can be very useful while transacting for NRIs staying abroad where the physical meeting is delaying the process of closing a deal.
WFH in realty is not for the long run. As our sentiments are connected with our property investment and ultimately without seeing the site & project, taking a decision is not easy. End result WFH in real estate will delay the execution part.
Having said that, we should always abide by the covid-19 appropriate behavior by following the safety measures like masks, sanitizers and adequate distancing etc.
RD: The experts and market watchers had predicted a drop in the commercial real estate sector after the impact of COVID-19. Do you think this statement holds true?
RS: Not really, as despite suffering setbacks during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, the commercial real estate industry has a positive outlook heading into 2022.
As a thumb rule, If the investment horizon of the investor is large and he/she is looking at a long to very long-term investment horizon, commercial real estate is the option to choose. However, factors such as location, availability of physical and social infrastructure and connectivity must be kept in mind while investing in a commercial asset.
The prediction of real estate experts regarding the drop of commercial real estate sector is largely based upon the assumption of ‘people working from their homes will only encourage the residential sector’.
However, this is not completely true as the pandemic has dropped throughout the world and our government has already covered up the vaccination for almost the entire generation and shielded ourselves by the brutal impact that we had already gone through.
So, the urge and sentiments of buying the commercial property will flourish along with residential sector. Hence, no drop.
