Festive Season Spikes Up The Market As Investors Search For Real Estate Deals Report

After months of uncertainty following the coronavirus pandemic, the festival season had uplifted consumer sentiment in residential real estate industry as investors begin to look for exciting deals, reveals the third edition of Magicbricks Property Buyer’s Sentiment Survey.

With attractive discounts and offers being offered by developers, investors are now looking for attractive deals in the market and it now contributes to 25% of the intent to purchase a property. The first (April) and the second (July) edition of the sentiment survey had revealed that investors had exited the market amidst uncertainty.

Return of investors augurs well for the industry, which is witnessing a renewed interest from all segments of consumers indicated by the increased traffic on Magicbricks. The latest sentiment survey states that one-third of the buyers are now looking to buy on the availability of discounts launched by many developers across the country in a bid to reduce their inventory overhang.
In the last six months, market had seen a dip in the number of transactions but recent trends reflect recovery with consumer searches on the Magicbricks portal surpassing the numbers during pre-Covid months by 30%-40%.

The report also reveals that contrary to the popular belief that transactions have suffered during the pandemic induced lockdown, 9% of the respondents actually made a property purchase during the Covid-19 period.
In addition, ‘Opportunist Searches’ have also increased during the pandemic with every 1 in 3 people looking for high discounts and distress sale opportunities as the people are more certain about the prices, the festive season has also uplifted the sentiment.

Demand witnessed an upsurge even sharper than before the pandemic, but towards affordable and mid-segment properties, which form a bulk of the supply in most cities, even as consumers have reduced their budgets. Mirroring the search trends, prices have also bounced back to pre-Covid levels in most cities.

Commenting on the report, Sudhir Pai, CEO of Magicbricks said: “With uncertainties around the economy and jobs now stabilising, we are witnessing a surge in property searches on our platform and it has surpassed the pre-Covid levels by 30%-40%. Also, one interesting outcome of pandemic is that it is likely to have a positive long-standing impact on the real estate sector with people realising the importance of home ownership. And with a lot of good deals and discounts available, it is now a buyers’ market so much so that even investors have made a comeback.”

(Source: Times of India)