More NRI enquiries for luxury housing post lockdown, buying cycle to get longer

The pandemic has made realised that life is so fast paced that we never get time to relax, pause, understand what we are doing, are we taking care of ourselves, says Yukti Nagpal, Director, Gulshan.

Speaking at Realty Webseries, a Realty & More and ICCPL initiative, Nagpal says it is wellness, which is going to sells luxury. “Upgradation of lifestyle and wellness, that’s going to be the only thing that’s going to sell from now on”, said Nagpal.

Sotheby’s International Realty’s India CEO Amit Goyal says that post Covid 19, there is definitely going to be an increase in the cost because of quality, supply chain as there is a disintegration in the last couple of months. Goyal elaborates that getting supply from Europe for marble, lighting, etc. will take more time, there are going to be more precautions and more items would be added to the checklist. “Labour cost is also going to go up. So all these will put a pressure on the pricing and the same time the buyers would expect some discount”, said Goyal.

On asking how much appetite does the market has for the luxury segment, Raheja Group Director Nayan Raheja said, he feels more bullish about the luxury sector in India in the coming time as compared to the mid segment. The Raheja Group Director explained that the pace has slowed down more in the mid-segment because of job insecurity, etc. “But in the luxury segment in the last month we done almost one of the highest sales in the last year”, said Raheja.

Presenting a new perspective Ananta Raghuvanshi, Senior ED, Sales & Marketing, Experion said that it is not the type of business that it used to be and all developes, realtors has to ask themselves what are they willing to give up to do their job best. “So you have to invest a lot of time, a lot of energy”, said Raghuvanshi.

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Informing about the trends post lockdown, Krypton Global Investments Founder Mona Jalota said ever since Covid has hit, all her enquiries are coming from her UK, US based NRI clients, who want to now move back home. She added that this is an excellent time for them as good deals are available and they definitely are looking at wellness projects, which are having all sorts of amenities. “So, I think there is going to be some reverse flow of money coming in a larger manner”, said Jalota.

Echoing the view, DLF CMO Karan Kumar said there is a lot of enquiries, excitement from the NRI community and the company has closed roughly about Rs 200 crore sales in last 2 months and a lot of these deals have happened over video calls from multiple countries. “Parents here, children somewhere else, they want to buy something for themselves or they want to buy something where the parents can be protected and taken care of”, added Kumar.

Another panellist at the event, Vikas Wadhawan, Group CFO, Housing.com, PropTiger.com, Makaan.com said the ratio of luxury contribution in terms of enquiries and traffic is now very similar to what was seen in the pre-pandemic or pre-lockdown period and there aren’t any kind of data suggesting demand will be depressed or it will take a longer time to come back. “But now the cycle time to buy is going to be much longer”, concluded Wadhawan.