The outbreak of COVID-19 has impacted real estate activities across the country, however had the least impact on the home buyers’ sentiment in the markets of Bengaluru and Pune, mentioned the latest Magicbricks COVID-19 Property Buyers Sentiment Survey.
Magicbricks’ survey suggests that the outbreak of COVID-19 has temporarily affected more than 80% of the buying intent across the Tier-1 cities. However, home buyers in Pune and Bengaluru retained their intention of buying a house post COVID-19. The survey also suggests that buyer sentiments in the markets of Delhi/NCR and Mumbai,which were already sluggish before the national lockdown, will remain so after the crisis.
Sudhir Pai, CEO, Magicbricks, said, “The outbreak of COVID-19 and the resultant national lockdown has impacted India’s real estate market. However, our survey suggest that 67% of home buyers still want to go ahead and buy a property even though with a reduced budget. In the last 6 months, Bengaluru and Pune, which are driven by end-users, have been among the best performing real estate markets of India and market sentiments suggest that they would continue to be so. With consumer sentiments shifting to Ready-to-move in properties, quick & enough supply there will be key to recovery.”
Expected delay in home purchases due to Covid-19 With uncertainty around prices looming large across markets, Bangalore (5%) and Pune (2%) have witnessed the least reduction in prices during the lockdown, compared to markets like Hyderabad and Ahmedabad, which saw decent price increments in the last one year but now have been majorly impacted during the COVID-19 crisis. In the last 12 months, Hyderabad residential real estate witnessed 15% (YOY) price appreciation but due to the lockdown, it witnessed a 9% drop in prices. The same is the case with Ahmedabad, which had an 8% (YOY) growth but had an impact of 7% in price drop due to the lockdown, the survey mentioned.
It was also found that post-COVID-19, majority of the home buyers are willing to buy immediately for a specific discount in price. On an average 20% discount was found to be a sufficient trigger for buying and only 2% were willing to make a quick purchase if prices fell by <10%.
The survey also suggests that besides drop in prices, going ahead home buyers would also look for relaxed financial terms for down payments, woodwork and kitchen fittings that would minimise post-purchase efforts, minimal site visits through videos and photographs, online documentation, and online registry.
(Source: Economic Times)
