Niranjan Hiranandani, President, NAREDCO: As the disruptive impact of policy reforms faded away early in the year, 2018 witnessed signs of revival, with the industry evolving in terms of accountability, transparency and compliance. With the residential segment facing challenges, we stand on the cusp of 2019, looking for some sort of magic to conjure up funds and ensure the sector has work in progress.
We are extremely bullish about the imperative growth of housing to gear up India’s GDP growth at the projected rate of 7.8% and emerge as the fastest growing economy. Ambitious objectives such as Housing For All by 2022 and planning a slew of mega infrastructure projects across the country will co-script the sustainable growth story along with perennial job creation.
Jaxay Shah, President, CREDAI National: 2018 truly witnessed the Indian real estate sector rise like a phoenix from the ashes, with the entire ecosystem proving to be the perfect example of sheer resilience in the face of critical policy reforms and pressing financial and administrative roadblocks.
As we embark on a renewed journey with newer and more dynamic facets like REITs, technological advancement, and sustainable development coupled with enhanced home-buyers’ confidence, we expect an era of unceasing growth for Indian realty.
The industry witnessed an increase in housing sales by an estimated 16% this year according to real estate reports and this momentum is expected to continue in 2019.
Ashish Puravankara, President, CREDAI Bengaluru: The real estate industry is considered as one of the most important economic drivers for India. The recent governmental impetus for affordable housing has started giving results but continued policy stability is imperative for a much longer period in order to derive more pronounced benefits for both home buyers and the economy in general.
Just about the time when stability in policy environment and market sentiments have begun to show results, the proposed move to increase guideline values will set the industry back and make the end-consumer suffer the consequences.
A stable tax regime will ensure greater government revenues. Any disruption here will lead to lower business and in turn be counter-productive to the government's initiative for greater property registration tax revenues.
Irfan Razack, former CREDAI Chairman, & CMD, Prestige Group: With a resilient market in 2018, despite witnessing several major policy changes with the implementation of RERA and GST, we have still managed to do well as an industry.
There is stress in certain quarters, but the developers who are established and show commitment towards corporate governance and transparency are succeeding. With GST and RERA stabilising, the real estate sector is on the cusp of a complete makeover.
Buyers and developers have reconciled themselves to the additional costs, and the market is all set to witness further growth. There have been several new launches in the market, rents have gone up and the commercial sector has been thriving with close to zero vacancy rates.
Sarthak Chhabra, Director & Co-Founder, AltF CoWorking: The co-working segment has shown enormous growth in 2018, with a lot of expansions, acquisition, and investment in the segment. The market is growing at the rate of 16% year-on-year. The demand for private co-working spaces also increased at the rate of 25% in 2018.
Not only startups, SMEs and corporates are also moving to the new way of working, increasing the average occupancy per desk to 1.2 members. With this massive growth registered in the segment, 2019 is expected to entice more opportunities, investments, and entry of new players, apart from spreading its wings to tier-2 and -3 cities .
