By Amit Masaldan
The Indian real estate market has shown remarkable resilience despite global headwinds. The sentiment towards residential properties is positive and online searches for low-cost and high-end apartments exceeding Rs 1 crore have surged significantly. Moreover, people are looking for second homes or upgrading their existing dwellings to bigger residential units to cater to their growing needs and aspirations. This trend is not limited to major urban centers but is visible in smaller towns and important tier-2 cities like Lucknow, Jaipur, and Indore.
The latest cross-country survey conducted by Housing.com on online property search trends in 2022 augurs well for the real estate industry as well as homebuyers. The demand for residential units costing between Rs 1 and 2 crore saw an increase of over 24% in online searches by volume on a year-to-year basis, which has the potential to drive the residential property market in the current year and beyond. Developers must seize this opportunity to fulfill the demand for high-end residential apartments at reasonable costs and at appropriate locations.
The online search traffic during 2022 was highest for properties at Thane West (Mumbai), followed by Whitefield (Bengaluru) and Greater Noida West (Delhi NCR). Besides these locations, there was a lot of interest in properties at New Town (Kolkata), Mira Road East (Mumbai), Chandkheda (Ahmedabad), Wakad (Pune), Kharghar (Pune), Gota (Ahmedabad), and Vastral (Ahmedabad). These top ten locations are likely to witness significant demand in the near term, gaining momentum with the passage of time.
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The demand for residential premises will not be restricted to megacities but will also be witnessed equally in tier-2 towns. In these cities, which are fast catching up with mega centers, homebuyers have started showing interest in apartments instead of independent homes, thus opening up bigger opportunities for developers and realty agents. Among the tier-2 cities, Lucknow occupied the top spot in terms of online reach for residential premises, followed by Jaipur and Indore.
The changing preference towards apartments over independent homes is due to the better quality of life, safety, and common recreational facilities they provide. The online search for new apartments rose by as much as 52% on a year-to-year basis as compared to a 2% drop for resale properties. The online search for properties with 3BHK and above configuration also surged 1.4 times in 2022, indicating the contours of future demand in the residential realty space.
Overall, these seminal trends in the housing sector online search, emerging from a Housing.com survey, reflect the growing interest of homebuyers and will set the pace of growth for the residential market in the near term on a pan-India basis. It is time for developers to take note and start working towards ensuring the availability of residential units of the right configuration at competitive prices.
(The author is Business Head, Housing.com. Views are personal.)