Maharashtra: Uptick in homebuying will continue, feel developers

PUNE: Realtors and developers, buoyed by the increase in property registrations across the state, expect the trend to continue — even improve — in the coming days.
They, however, said their forecasts were pinned on the assumption that no more lockdowns will be imposed.
An executive from a consultancy firm said things were looking sunnier, but another lockdown can come as a bad setback to the struggling sector. “That is what happened in July,” he said, referring to the 10-day total shutdown imposed in Pune Metropolitan Region last month.
Realtors said that buyers were returning after an unprecedented slowdown since April, which had forced developers to the go back to the drawing board and limit new launches, reconfigure room sizes and reorient work patterns. They say the enquiries are now more purpose-oriented compared to earlier.
“Customers have started returning over the past 4-6 weeks. The silver lining is that these are serious buyers who have clarity on their jobs for the next two years,” Rohit Gera, managing director of Gera Developments, said.
Gera said buyers had reduced budgets — approximately 15-20% lower than pre-Covid-19 levels. “They want to save for a rainy day, but don’t want to cut corners by reducing the configuration, so smaller-sized 2BHKs and 3BHKs are seeing greater traction,” he said.
In Mumbai, however, property registrations have yet to pick up pace — as against a daily average of 189 registrations a day in August 2019, the first eight days of this month so far have seen just 56 per day, or about 30%.
The consultancy firm, Anarock, said in a note that site visits and property enquiries in Mumbai and Pune have reached 50% of pre-Covid levels, which was significant because the two regions had seen more stringent lockdowns than other parts of the state.
The consultancy firm said Mumbai residents were looking to upgrade from 1BHK to 2BHK, while in Pune, 2BHK remains the top preference. Anarock said in places like Pune, the conversion level (enquiries translating into sales) has also increased to 12%, where it was 9-10% earlier.
“After gold, real estate is still considered a safe investment,” a Pune-based property broker said.
Credai’s Pune-Metro president Suhas Merchant stated the demand was back at 60-70%, with 900-1,000sqft homes recording more demand.