Pivot or Perish: The Real Estate Sector

By Lodha

November 20, 2020

Mint's Pivot or Perish webinar held last month focused on the impact of COVID-19 on Indian real estate market and how resilient it was to overcome the recent set-backs. On the panel were Abhishek Lodha, MD and CEO, Lodha Group; Vivek Singhal, CEO, M3M; Juggy Marwaha, CEO, Prestige Office Ventures; Rajeev Talwar, CEO, DLF Ltd and Chairman, Naredco and Karan Virwani, CEO, WeWork India.

Speaking on the rise in the demand for ready-to-move-in homes, the panellist believed that the trend is likely to continue for the next 18-24 months. According to a report by Liases Foras, the sales were up 60% in the July-September quarter in the tier-1 cities with 42,297 units sold, compared to sales in April-June quarter with 26,403 units sold.

Abhishek Lodha, MD and CEO, drawing parallels to global trends in real estate said, "There has been an upsurge in sentiments towards housing across the globe. The US is having its strongest ever housing sales, you're getting very strong housing numbers out of China, the UK housing prices are at an all-time high. Similarly, in Indian cities definitely in Mumbai and I also understand in Banglore, you're seeing a lot of demand for good quality housing especially for one that is ready."

He further commented, "Demand has grown ahead of supply, and home prices are going to rise. There has been a lot of monetary easing by banks in the last few months to support the economy, and as a result, assets like homes will rise in value. More importantly, because supply will be more constrained for a while in the ready-to-move-in homes segment, we will see prices rise significantly by about 5-15% in the coming 24-month period."

Watch the webinar here: