Real estate companies are seeing a steady increase in enquiries and purchases from non-resident Indians from the Middle East, after many countries in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) reported a spike in Covid-19 cases.
Job losses in gulf countries after the Covid-19 spread, falling oil prices, and the security of owning a house in one's native country are driving the trend, say many developers Business Standard spoke to. From the UAE alone, some 150,000 Indians registered to repatriated, of which 25 per cent cited job losses as a reason for leaving the Gulf country, reports said.
For instance, in just the two months of April and May, the total sales done by Godrej Properties from GCC customers is almost half to what it has done from them in the whole of last financial year.
Its chief marketing officer Lalit Makhijani expects that the momentum of sales from GCC buyers to continue in the rest of FY21. In FY20, the company posted sales of Rs 473 crore from GCC markets, which is thrice the number achieved three years ago.
“The oil based economy of GCC markets is experiencing one of the worst downturns. The returning tide of workforce is investing in this security blanket. The recent global uncertainty has increased their faith in domestic markets,” said Kamal Khetan, chairman and managing director of Sunteck Realty, a Mumbai based developer.
Khetan said purchases and enquiries from GCC buyers, which were negligible earlier, are currently at about 10-15 per cent of the overall.
Bengaluru-based Puravankara sold 50 units to GCC buyers the past two months. The sales includes those done by its affordable housing arm Provident Housing.
“We are expecting healthy uptake in the coming months with two of our projects scheduled for e-launch on June 6,” said Ashish R Puravankara, managing director of the company.
“Alongwith the futuristic product offering with innovative and technology driven amenities like smart homes, outdoor air purifiers and themed projects are attracting customers,” Puravankara said.
Another Bengaluru based developer Brigade Enterprises did sales of 15 crore from Gulf based buyers since end of March this. The amount is significant as the whole country was under lockdown. It is expecting sales from buyers in GCC to grow up by 20 per cent in the current financial year.
What’s more, Brigade is giving multiple sops to customers in the gulf region including price protection till end of 2020, low cancellation charges, and e-shopping vouchers with bookings among others, said Subhorov Roy, chief sales officer residential, Brigade Enterprises.
Mumbai based Hiranandani has also closed a couple of transactions and is working on a good number of transactions which are in the pipeline, said its managing director Niranjan Hiranandani.
“Response from NRIs in the (GCC) Countries has been very positive, residential real estate in our mixed used integrated townships offers them the same lifestyle and standards of living they are used to in the GCC Countries,” said Hiranandani.
Vikas Oberoi, chairman and managing director at Oberoi Realty has seen 30 per cent jump in over all enquiries.
“We have many non-resident Indian home buyers from all over the world and a lot of them are from the Gulf. We have seen a huge surge of inquiries from NRIs and they all want to come and visit the show apartment and the site.”
Even real estate consultants are also seeing good growth in enquiries.
About 35 per cent of enquiries currently being serviced by Anarock Property Consultants are from NRIs, of which Gulf-based NRIs dominate, said Anuj Puri, chairman of Anarock Property Consultants.
“The favourable exchange rate on the back of the sliding rupee against the dollar has, of course, improved affordability for them, but that is just one side of the story. Many NRIs are in the process of returning to India and want to secure a home here,” he said.
Interestingly, enquiries have increased even from NRIs who will continue to live and work abroad. The coronavirus pandemic has put homeownership high on Indians’ priority list, regardless of where they now live and may continue to live. This is borne out by the steadily increasing enquiries from domestic buyers, he said.
"We understand from our banking partners that home loan enquiries from NRIs have also begun rising consummately,” Puri said.