Roadblock in real estate recovery: Home-buying gets hit by weekend lockdowns

New Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai: Home-buying starts with home viewing, and most viewing happens over weekends. But two of India’s major real estate markets – NCR cities in UP and Bengaluru – are now under weekend lockdowns, and buyer queries have crashed. Developers and property consultants say this is threatening the nascent recovery in the sector.The UP government announced weekend lockdowns (Friday 10 pm to Monday 6 am) from the first week of July. The Karnataka government started a complete lockdown every Sunday from July 5.Developers say 70% of the site visits happen during weekends. “We were seeing slow recovery but weekend lockdown has dampened the momentum. Most of our prospective customers work during weekdays. Though majority of search activity is happening online, before making any payment, every customer wants to see the project,” said Gaurav Gupta, president, Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI), NCR-Ghaziabad. 77161387In Bangalore, property sales dipped by 10% in July as compared to June as the government announced lockdown for a week, over and above the Sunday lockdown throughout July. “Yes, footfalls are lower in a pandemic environment and due to on and off lockdowns,” said Samir Arora, president, Bengaluru Confederation of Real Estate Associates (India).“Out transactions had picked up, however some transactions are getting pushed back due to lockdowns as clients always want to visit the property before closing a deal,” said Bhavesh Kothari, founder & CEO of Property First, a luxury property broking firm.There are no additional restrictions in Mumbai. But according to property brokers, few customers are visiting sites, although some city buyers are familiar enough with localities to show interest without site visits.“Sales activity is picking up albeit at a slow pace. Leads generated earlier are pushing the momentum as the customers had already checked the location, property and other details. New site visits by homebuyers are being managed through prior appointments to ensure social distancing and other norms. Digital and virtual platforms are playing a crucial role in the entire process,” said Harish Kumar Jain, vice president, Brihanmumbai Developers Association (BDA).Developers say that they have to rely heavily on digital medium for sales.Sunil Gupta, property broker operating in Mumbai suburbs, said fresh footfalls are seeing a steady rise, but most deals getting concluded now were initiated prior to lockdowns.“Almost all new enquiries are being generated through online and digital platforms. New enquiries that are expected to get converted later will need customer site visits,” he said.Some industry observers feel that the work-from-home trend may lead to a few serious customers venturing out during weekdays, too. “For homebuyers, site visits have always been a key and basic element of the property buying journey…that won’t change…,” said Mani Rangarajan, Group COO, Housing.com.He added: “Most site visits take place over the weekend and new lockdown rules for weekends will certainly impact this.” He hopes WFH will mean some weekday visits as well.But most of the industry reckons weekend lockdowns, if they continue, will be a big negative for home-buying.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/2WVoMFL