MUMBAI HOUSING MARKET: THE SUBURBS BECKON

STILL IN THE GRIP OF A SLOWDOWN, MUMBAI REAL ESTATE IS WITNESSING BUYER’S RISING INTEREST IN CITY SUBURBS. THE INDUSTRY LEADERS DISCUSS THE SALES TRENDS. Despite Covid-19, in the second quarter of 2020, residential sales rose significantly, mostly in Mumbai suburbs. The reasons being availability of larger homes at affordable prices, more green spaces and lifestyle amenities. Another major contributor going forward will be the remote working in tech firms with business centres and office spaces coming up in the suburban locations, say experts. Setting the context with few statistics, Ramesh Nair, Country Head & CEO, JLL India informed, “Mumbai has recorded the highest residential sales contributing almost 30% of the sales across the country from July to September 2020. With the stamp duty reduction, sales in Mumbai reached close to 90% of the pre Covid levels. Also in terms of new launches, Mumbai and Hyderabad accounted for about 60% in the last quarter. Looking at these number there is some amount of optimism about the residential market in the real estate sector.” Elaborating on the future of redevelopment in space starved Mumbai Dr Niranjan Hiranandani, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Hiranandani Communities and President, NAREDCO & ASSOCHAM said, "Redevelopment is a specialised activity, requiring special skills for redevelopment of old buildings and colonies where people are already staying. It is evident that redevelopment model has not been very successful in resolving housing shortage in the city, mostly due to lack of transparency and ease of doing business issues. But I do believe there is a very big opportunity in the next couple of years for redevelopment, slum rehabilitation and peripheral development.” Shailesh Puranik, Managing Director, Puranik Builders Ltd added, “While, peripheral areas have a huge scope of housing development, the redevelopment segment can also be boosted by reducing government charges and premium and easy clearances. The online submissions and approvals are one way of fast tracking the projects. The ease of doing business in this segment, will encourage a lot more player’s make an entry and government revenue will also go up. This will reduce the misery of not only the residents but also the developer and financer.” Dhaval Ajmera, Director, Ajmera Group of Companies concurred, “I personally believe, whether it is a redevelopment or township project there is a big scope in Mumbai. With the kind of dilapidated buildings present in the city, only redevelopment can change the skyline of Mumbai. It also gives people the opportunity to live within the city rather than having to move to the outskirts. The government should take more efforts and initiatives to help ease the process of approvals needed for redevelopment of buildings.” POST COVID REALTY TRENDS As remote working becomes the new normal, buyers are looking for places that can serve as homes as well as offices. The self-contained townships on city peripheries with shops, schools and hospitals within the premises have attracted buyers, gaining sales even during Covid. Explaining how the pandemic situation will impact the residential suburb in market Chintan Sheth, Director, Ashwin Sheth Group, expressed, “The hub and spoke model and decentralization style of doing business will have a positive impact on suburbs realty development. With business districts coming-up in and around residential suburbs, these areas will see even higher home sales. Also, people are now inclined towards having larger living spaces and are moving from standalone building to well-designed complexes with multiple amenities, which are available in suburbs.” Mani Rangarajan, Group COO, Housing.com, Makaan. com, Proptiger.com agreed, “One of the main reason, people are buying homes now is that the pandemic has forced them to stay at home. In one of our survey’s it was found that about 40 % to 50% people intend to continue working from home. And almost 60% of these people are looking to upgrade their homes. Even on digital platforms we have seen people regularly searching for larger size homes with better amenities. People want to invest in mixed use townships where they can work as well as have their recreational activities in a safer environment. We have also found that people still prefer real estate as an investment.” Jaideep Gandhi, Founder, Another Idea opinion was to promote suburbs as destinations with developers coming together to share the distinct features of their properties for the benefit of the buyers. “Thane suburb of Mumbai is the most in-demand for commercial as well as residential development. If it is jointly promoted by developers of that area it will further drive the sales. Currently the use of social media is very important and developers need to create engagement through conversations on these platforms.”