The real estate sector in India has suffered a major setback ever since the countrywide lockdown was imposed. It has deeply affected the sale of both residential and commercial real estate properties. Also, the fact that India is dependent on China to a great extent for the raw material supply in this sector has proved to be a major setback.
In India, the real estate sector provides the largest number of employment after agriculture, which is over 49 million people. This figure is around 12% of the total workforce of the nation. It is also accountable for a huge part of the nation’s revenue. On account of COVID19, The National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO) has estimated a loss of 1 lakh crores from this sector.
The sudden ray of hope
On the 15th of April 2020, it was finally announced by the government that the real estate sector could resume its construction activities in the non-hotspot regions. But this would be possible only if the developers would follow certain safety measures and run their projects with minimum health hazards. This announcement has come up as a sign of relief for the developers, investors and homebuyers. As per this new guideline, the transportation of essential or non-essential items has been allowed by the government. This rule has enabled the realty sector to easily acquire the raw materials. After the Reserve Bank of India decided to cut the repo rate by 40 basis points to 4% comes as a ray of hope for the developers in this situation.
Post lockdown strategies
Though the Indian real estate market is about to witness a slowdown in the present and coming quarter, but it will benefit in the post-recovery phase. A gradual recovery is expected as things settle after this pandemic, in a rough period of 12 to 24 months. For the office real estate segment, the recovery is expected to be faster, while for the residential segment it is expected to be a little slower.
Developers and sellers are ready to operate in this challenging market and even willing to go to any extent to accommodate the buyers’ anxieties. In this situation, the developers and contractors have to ensure that social distancing is maintained and all kinds of hygiene and safety measures are adopted. To resume the construction activities they have to ensure regular sanitisation of the sites, provide the labourers with masks, hand sanitisers and soap and also implement consistent screening of labourers.
In this lockdown phase, when housing sales almost came to a standstill, brokers and developers are taking the help of technologies. In some states, they have even introduced the concept of e-registration of property documents to smoothly complete the process.
They are promoting digital walk-through and slice view technology to provide their customers with a 3-D view of the buildings and apartments. The AV technology has also proved to be extremely useful presently in promoting virtual site visits and walk-throughs. Their employees are also using video calls to help the builders connect with customers. These online strategies can be accomplished by either launching a website or app through a reliable web development firm to boost the current online marketing strategies.
To cope up with the cut-throat competition, the reality firms have come up with innovative online marketing campaign and multiple schemes to attract potential customers. This includes online property classified ads and budget advertising on different popular websites. Social media platform like Facebook is also used for such marketing purposes. This digital platform marketing is generating good customer leads and the sales number is expected to increase.
Some of the brokers and builders are also coming up with flexible schemes and encouraging the prospective buyers to digitally book their properties online by paying a low token amount. A scheme named as “Walk in Nahi, Log in Karona” has been launched by one of the companies where consumers can book their property digitally.
The companies have initiated tie-ups with several trusted payment gateways to enable closure of online deals and offering booking payments online. In order to gain the trust of prospective customers, ensure that you get your website designed by a reliable company with authentic payment gateway options. Some firms are also providing an option to cancel online bookings without charging any penalty up to 90 days.
The online strategy is creating wonders
Previously, for 75% of the people, offline method was the prime source of a property search. But recently with this adoption of online portals in the real estate market due to COVID19, there has been a big shift in this trend. Now, the demand for virtual visits has increased. 60% of the home buyers have stated that they would prefer to go on a virtual tour or take a look at the online presentations for shortlisting and finalising their homes.
Though the sale of real estate was hugely impacted due to the countrywide lockdown, the investors and developers are still positive about the re-bounce of the business. Considering the magic created by the online portals, they have a belief that this phase is going to be temporary. Once the situation starts normalizing and the business starts resuming the buyer sentiment will automatically improve with rising demand for both the residential and commercial properties.