Realty+ Partners With Alchemist For Webinar “COVID-19. Real Estate 20. The Aftermath”
On April 13, the live Webinar “COVID-19. Real Estate 20. The Aftermath” was attended by eminent personalities from different sectors of real estate to discuss the current coronavirus crisis and its impacts and implications on the industry. Anarock was the Knowledge partner and Realty+ was the Associate Partner of the event. Annurag Batra, Chairman & Editor-in-chief, exchange4media Group and Business World sharing his view said, “The overall business scenario has 3 dimensions- what are the real estate owners doing? What are the consumers doing? And what is the government doing? In terms of post crisis, commercial real estate and co-working will not keep up in terms of growth. Covid 19 has made people realise the importance of having a home. I can clearly say that at least till September I don’t see the situation picking up. What we need to do is reinvent and rethink strategies and the way forward.” Sanjay Dutt. MD & CEO. Tata Realty And Infrastructure Ltd, giving his interpretation of the crisis stated, “Our main aim as of now is ensuring the safety of all our residents, customers and especially workers across all verticals of our business. The current situation has forced all of us to accelerate the digitisation of the industry. We have changed all our processes and are looking at customers very differently. We are hoping that we are able to bounce back and recover in FYQ2.” Amit Goenka, Managing Director & CEO at NiFCO expressed, “Although capital will be scarce, certain sectors like warehousing and logistics will be the beacon of hope. With the need for localisation, these sectors of real estate will see a new high. However, As compared to last year the demand will be down by 30%-60% in commercial and residential respectively. The focus hence forward should be to complete assets.” Anuj Puri,Chairman, ANAROCK “In 2008 it was wealth destruction and greed brought us down. This time it is lack of activity that has brought us down. Now is going to happen is that everything will go online. We have to force ourselves to think out of the box. If we have to do something we will. Initially it will be a struggle but intimately things will come out of it and we will be back.” Pradeep Agarwal, Founder & Chairman – Signature Global Group & Chairman - ASSOCHAM National Council on Real Estate, Housing and Urban Development said, “This will be a restart of sorts for us developers. After Covid I feel just about 10 developers are going to be active in the market. The entire system will be centralised like a share market. Going forward affordable housing will be the one to continue to shine. Now is the time to plan and reshape the industry. Once this is all over, the right products will sell.” Manoj Gaur, Managing Director, Gaurs Group concurred, “The best medicine till now to treat Covid 19 is –Home. That is made by us developers. There is no other ready solution to this novel crisis. However, it has made us rethink our business models and go digital. The more real estate and transactions go digital the better it will be for the sector in the long run.” Sangeeta Prasad. MD& CEO , Member of Group Executive Board, Mahindra Group was of the view, “We should focus on things that are in our control rather than wasting our time on those that aren’t. As a customer, home is a safe haven. So we have to find ways in which everything is available to the customer at home. The customer is also realising that less is more. So the developer and financier has to learn to shape their products respectively. Henceforward, customers will only entertain those that they trust.” Kalpesh Mehta, CEO, Tribeca Realty stated, “What I have realised over the past few weeks is that there is no going back to life before the crisis. For the Government it has come down to a choice of opening up the economy or saving lives. So as a sector we are tasked with finding solution for problems we have never seen before. The entire industry has to think together to find different ways to function and bring the situation under as much control as possible. I feel the next 12 months is the best time to buy a home.” Manisha Natrajan, Brand & Communications Head, Brookfield Properties mentioned that realty sector is one of the toughest industry and is working hard to overcome the challenges posed by the economic slowdown earlier and COVID 19 now. “The demand is there, the current challenges are from supply side,” she said. The webinar was conducted by Manish Porwal, Managing Director Alchemist Marketing Solutions. He concluded the session by saying, “It’s amazing to be able to hear and assimilate the views of captains who make an industry. We had a star studded panel with huge diversity and thus we got views and opinions which were almost comprehensive. Time ahead immediately post covid 19 is not going to be easy for Real Estate ‘20 and the aftermath may be disruptive for the industry’s norms and methods. We look forward to having contributed to the industry on the aspect of “knowing as a first step to responding”. The discussion was followed by the Alchemist presentation of POV on real estate communication and Media panel Q&A followed by the audience questions for the speakers.
Tags : News/Views