Home-buying budgets rose post-pandemic, says survey

As many as 57% of the respondents said homebuyers had increased their budgets

Hyderabad, Telangana, 31/01/2020: Visitors at the 9th Edition of the Hyderabad Property Show 2020, hosted by the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Associations of India (CREDAI) at the Hitex Exhibition Center in Hyderabad on January 31, 2020. Photo: Nagara Gopal / The Hindu

A majority of homebuyers have increased their budgets post the pandemic, as per a survey conducted by NoBroker.com, a real estate brokerage-free technology platform.

The survey was conducted among 100 developers. As many as 57% of the respondents said homebuyers had increased their budgets, 84% affirmed that the second half of 2020 registered better sales figures than the year-earlier period.

Asked if they offered discounts on property prices to stimulate investor activity, three-fourths (75%) of the respondents replied in the affirmative.

Of them, more than half (53%) offered discounts within the 0-5% range while about 40% extended discounts that ranged from 5% to 10% of the property prices.

A majority (87%) claimed offering discounts attracted homebuyers and resulted in sales.

As many as 85% of the respondents highlighted millennials as the most active age group (30-40 years) when it came to homebuying activity in 2020. All the builders expressed satisfaction with the government’s initiatives to bolster demand in the affordable-housing segment.

As per the findings, 59% of builders observed greater demand for property located in the suburbs.

“The pandemic marks a turning point in India’s real estate sector, especially in the way property seekers are approaching home hunting and the way builders are responding to the shift in consumer sensibilities and preferences. Through our latest survey, we aimed to map this paradigm shift,” said Saurabh Garg, co-founder and CBO, NoBroker.com.