Demand for residential real estate in Q3 surpasses pre-Covid levels by 30-40%: Magicbricks PropIndex

MUMBAI: Notwithstanding the uncertainty in India’s economy due to the impact of COVID-19, the real estate industry has witnessed a growth recovery in demand as property searches increased by 30-40% as compared to pre-Covid levels, showed property portal Magicbricks’ PropIndex for the quarter ended September.
The previous edition of the Propindex Report for Apr-Jun (Q2) 2020 had reported that the consumer searches reached pre-COVID levels in June, after falling by as much as 50% during April. The consumer search pattern holds the same trend since then and as of September end the consumer searches were almost 30-40% higher than the pre-COVID levels.

Commenting on the PropIndex report, Sudhir Pai, CEO, Magicbricks, said, “The next 6-8 months are crucial for the revival of the residential sector. The onset of the pandemic and the ensuing lockdown have changed consumer preferences. Today, the shift is towards affordability as home buyers have reduced their budget but they haven’t changed their preference in terms of BHK or size. With the festive season just around the corner, we are witnessing a sharp recovery in demand and prices have remained stable for the July-September quarter after falling up to 5% in the April-June quarter of 2020. This augurs well for the industry and we hope consumers’ buying sentiment will continue to improve and translate into transactions in the coming quarters.”
The PropIndex report suggests that primary concerns of liquidity crunch and subdued level of transactions have become acute during the pandemic, but the lockdown has also thrown open a plethora of opportunities and interesting buyer trends.