In the coming years, the Indian construction industry is expected to grow at a 6.2% annual rate with increasing demand for housing and construction materials. This increase in material costs, combined with supply chain disruptions and inflation, will result in an increase in the price of construction materials, which account for two-thirds of total construction costs. Despite price increases, consumers are not willing to compromise on the quality of materials used. To make the real estate process more efficient, the construction industry is increasingly embracing digital technologies such as virtual design, VR home tours, cloud-based software, and big data algorithms, says Ashish Aggarwal, Director, SpaceMantra.

In an exclusive interview with Sanjeev Sinha, Mr Aggarwal expresses his views on the current state of the real state industry and how digitization could be the driving force in the coming years. Excerpts:

India is seeing a boom in the real estate development sector as the demand for housing is at an all-time high. How is this going to affect the consumption and pricing patterns of construction materials used in building this infrastructure?

In 2023, the market dynamics have changed significantly. With rising material cost, developers will be compelled to increase prices as construction materials account for about 2/3rd share in the total cost of construction. The fragile global supply chain, supply side shocks and soaring inflation had a deteriorating effect on the prices of raw materials. Consumers are not going to compromise on the quality of construction materials used and hence the price increase to some extent might negatively affect the rapidly-increasing real estate market.

Consumers like to handpick each element of their dream house in making by themselves nowadays. How does it affect the digital patterns of buying materials online?

In the increasingly digital world today, letting consumers handpick each element of their dream house helps in giving customers the autonomy of choosing how their dream house will look like. However, doing so can slow down the speed of the procurement process. It has been made easy for customers and companies to select their preferences from a wide range of raw material types, grades and prices through online medium in just a few easy steps. This pattern of digital procurement gets you the exact materials required for the project while making the project quicker and more efficient.

Also Read: Should you convert your credit card due amount into EMIs?

How is the real estate industry getting more digitalised in serving their customers?

The need for digital transformation in construction has grown significantly as a result of increased global supply chain disruptions, increased competition and worker shortages. The construction industry is increasingly adopting a variety of new technologies. Many of these technologies involve virtual design and visualization. VR home tours, cloud-based software, smart contracts, and big data algorithms make the real estate process more tech-savvy and lead to a seamless experience.

As we enter into a fresh new year, what are some trends and predictions we can anticipate for the construction industry this year?

The Indian construction industry is expected to grow at a 6.2% annual rate from 2023 to 2026, thanks to a robust plan of infrastructure projects in a variety of sectors that are lined up. In the coming years, government programmes such as Atmanirbhar Bharat, which is expected to boost domestic industries and micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and the Pradhan Mantri Gati Shakti National Master Plan, which aims to drive economic growth through infrastructure development, will attract investment in the construction industry.

What’s the road ahead for SpaceMantra in 2023?

SpaceMantra is on a mission to build a one stop eB2B platform with the aim to bring together the highly fragmented and unorganised construction industry. Through constant efforts we are trying to strengthen our vendor base by directly building our ties with manufacturers and brands. This will help us in offering our product range at better prices to the consumers. We are also working on providing solutions to the long existing procurement challenges in the industry. Our future plans are to expand our customer reach by offering several integrated services that will help them ease out their operational challenges.