If the Indian real estate was gasping for breath since long, Cronavirus has further pushed it to the ventilator. Track2Realty in an online poll finds that the challenge is no more limited to the unsold inventory, liquidity crisis & buyers’ reluctance, but to keep the existing buyers stay afloat. Job losses and salary cut threatens to make foreclosure a reality now.
Track2Realty picks up Investment Magnet Cities of India through a comprehensive pan-India survey. The idea is to identify the top real estate destinations for the home buyers in the country.
Let’s get straight into this question, which has been a concern among all stakeholders – financial planners, property owners, investors and prospective buyers – over the last few years. And only because real estate, particularly residential, did not yield the same returns as it did during its Golden Era of the early 2000s.
The NRIs from the US, UK, Middle East, South Africa, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore and Mauritius participated in the survey. They were given a mix of open-ended and close-ended questions to assess their investment choice in the Indian property market. The data was then collated by Track2Realty team to read the mood of the NRIs vis-à-vis their investment choice in the Indian property market.
There is a public perception that what has transformed this once non-descript city into thriving metro city is the gulf money since a large number of Kochi residents are working in the gulf region. However, Kochi property market is not being driven by gulf money alone; this could be only a reality in the luxury segment.
The survey clearly suggests marriage is as much a choice for women as mortgage, and marriage is definitely not predestination of home ownership. Even among the married couples the role of the women is changing and they are increasingly getting on the driver’s seat when buying a house.
The greener pastures are mostly defined with numbers and not execution capabilities or business model. For example, the absorption of office space has been upwards of 40 million square feet per annum for the last 3 years. The overall sentiments in this segment look bullish with PE investors also putting in money. As a matter of fact, even in retail real estate the PE investors are bullish and exploring even the Tier II cities having malls with good footfalls, brand mix and strong sales. This is what is enticing the residential developers looking for both the buyers as well as the capital investments.
There is no restriction on the number of properties that NRIs can own in India. However, NRIs obviously need to make informed decisions on such acquisitions. The most important consideration is that of whether the property purchase is for their own or their family’s actual use, or as an investment for rental income and potential capital appreciation.
Dubai led the pack of international cities that contributed significantly to the GTV of the company followed by Toronto and Melbourne. Square Yards has built up significant NRI operations in 13 international cities namely Abu Dhabi, Doha, Dubai, Kuwait, Sharjah, Hong Kong, Muscat, Melbourne, Singapore, Sharjah, Sydney and Toronto.
The Indian real estate sector has always been perceived by investors across the world as attractive proposition in terms of quality assets across segments. The recent policy changes and reforms have further shaped the perception of global investors on India as these reforms are seen as India’s endeavour to given an image makeover to the real estate business.