Real Estate in India
Appropriate housing is now being created for all income
levels. The current Government has taken the needs of the people to heart and
deployed various policy initiatives to ensure that home ownership becomes affordable
and desirable.
In the 71 years since India gained independence, the
country’s real estate market has changed tremendously. While it has not always
been consumer-favouring throughout this period, it is certainly so today. The
country’s cities have expanded, new economic drivers have come in and jobs are
being created at all levels. Likewise, appropriate housing is now being created
for all income levels. The current Government has taken the needs of the people
to heart and deployed various policy initiatives to ensure that homeownership
becomes affordable and desirable.
Also, like the real estate market itself, the market for
housing loans has become very competitive, giving consumers the edge of choice.
Moreover, property prices have also rationalized across the country after the
Government's demonetization move late last year. While it was initially
expected that only the resale homes and land markets would be affected, it
quickly became evident that the lowered sentiment had percolated in primary
sales as well.
Buyer sentiment today
For a long time, India's independence did not have too many
favourable connotations for aspiring home buyers. Their disadvantageous
position had a lot to do with the fact that the real estate market was largely
held hostage by developers. Today, this scenario has changed significantly.
Over the past two years, we have seen the decisive return of consumer power on
the market, with the arrival of the Real Estate Regulatory Act (RERA) providing
the final edge.
While RERA is still experiencing teething troubles, it is for
certain that it is here to stay - finally putting buyers firmly in the driver
seat. The Act is by far the most convincing manifestation of independence for
home buyers in modern-day India, promising to eventually bring the residential
property market on par with international standards of transparency and
accountability to consumers. We are already seeing a return of home buyer
interest on the back of this major policy reform, and there will be faster
forward momentum going forward.
Meanwhile, the opening up of new locations via rapid
infrastructure deployment and various consumer-favouring policy initiatives by
the Government are boosting housing affordability. With RERA simultaneously
cleaning up the market of unscrupulous elements, the market is becoming larger,
more wholesome and more attractive than ever before. We are indeed poised at
the cusp of massive change, and the consumer is the primary beneficiary.
Technology-enabled consumer power
The Internet has done a lot more than just open up the Indian
real estate market's topography. It has also brought with it a greatly rebooted
job market - not only in terms of IT/ITeS jobs but almost all industries as a
whole. Today, India is leading from the front in terms of Infotech-enabled
businesses, with e-commerce and a thriving start-up culture driving economic
growth.
In Independent India today, there are close to 450 million
Internet users, and a vast number of new avenues of revenue generation has
opened up. In contrast, twenty years ago the means for Indians to make a decent
livelihood was restricted to a handful of professions. This has had direct
implications on home buyer sentiment.
