Every festive season brings much hope for Indian real estate, even when the numbers don’t always back up the hype. Real estate is a sentiment-driven industry, and market players work hard to create a welcoming environment to entice buyers sitting on the fence, often with discounts and bonuses.
As festivals are often associated with new beginnings and prosperity, housing sales usually increase during these periods. For example, DLF – which recently launched its newest luxury residential project The Grove, at DLF5, Gurugram – claims to have sold all 292 luxury residences in just eight days, indicating the robust demand.
“The Indian festive season has become the annual high point for residential real estate. The auspicious time of the year has historically been considered an excellent time to invest in wealth-creating assets. From the point of view of trying to bring back exceptional returns as well, the real estate sector has always outperformed the market. This year too, the sector is expected to witness a significant rise in demand for homes with a flurry of new launches, especially in the luxury segment, that will attract HNI and UHNI home buyers, and significant investment coming from the NRI community, who plan to visit their homeland after nearly two years,” said Aakash Ohri, Group Executive Director and Chief Business Officer, DLF Ltd.
The festive season of Navratras, Dussehra, Dhanteras and Diwali is the time of year when home buyers opt for high-ticket purchases, which provides a significant boost to the real estate sector and is marked by the launch of new projects, as well as a variety of benefits to attract home buyers.
Pankaj Bansal, Director, M3M India, said, “The festive season has only brought more energy to the sales, and as a real estate developer, we are confident that this momentum will continue. The Navratri festival has been extremely good for the real estate developers. Our recently launched ‘M3M Capital’ residential project in Sector 113, Gurugram, has also received tremendous response and recorded Rs 1200 crore sales during Navratri itself.”
According to industry insiders, real incomes have grown faster than housing prices, resulting in homes being perceived as a good investment option.
Vivek Singhal, CEO of Smart World Developers, said, “Rising millennial homeownership has fueled a surge in housing demand, driven by higher disposable income and a desire to upgrade to larger, more luxurious spaces with better amenities. The number of home buyers eager to close deals during this auspicious season is increasing. At Smart World, we have seen phenomenal demand for our existing projects and huge expectation; waiting for our new launches planned in the upcoming festive season.”
According to a survey conducted during Diwali last year, approximately 51% of urban Indians believe that the best time to invest in real estate is during the festival season. The sector has performed well in recent months, and this trend is expected to continue.
“With the festive season starting, residential property is going to see good numbers. Moreover, customers who had postponed their purchase during shradh are now looking to close the deals. Furthermore, due to the constantly rising price of residential real estate, as well as the increasing demand for spacious homes, homebuyers understand the need to lock in the best deals as developers are also coming up with festive season sales and lucrative offers,” said Ashok Singh Jaunapuria, MD & CEO, SS Group.
Buying a home during the festive season is believed to bring prosperity and good luck, which is why people wait for this time to invest in something big.
“This year, a combination of demand and supply-side enablers and accentuating prospects of real estate investment augur well for homebuyers. We have an omnichannel approach where we are using both traditional and new-age mediums to put our vision across to potential homebuyers, and we are confident that this festive will immensely boost sales. We at Alpha Corp are gearing up to offer significant discounts and freebies to give homebuyers an added incentive and help convert enquiries to sales,” said Santosh Agarwal, CFO and Executive Director, Alpha Corp.
Sharing the same view, Shashank Vashishtha, Executive Director, eXp India, said, “The festive season is shining bright as the real estate market has made a strong recovery and anticipates continued growth. There have been several new launches and ready-to-move-in opportunities available to homebuyers. While festive season incentives have always been prevalent, this year they are essential in ensuring the prolonged growth momentum in sales over the next several quarters.”