99acres Reports Survey Results about Indian Buyer Behavior

Indian property portal giant, 99acres.com, has released the results of a survey. Around 1,760 participants took the survey. These participants are home hunters living in major Indian cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, and Lucknow.

The survey showed that a majority (90%) of homebuyers expect prices to fall due to the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on markets across the world. 

The portal explained:

"60% of the Indian homebuyers who were in-market looking to buy a house before the pandemic are still planning to buy their homes within a year. Post the pandemic, a very significant share (90%) of real-estate buyers expect a price correction."

When it comes to those continue to search for new dwellings versus those who were searching before shelter-in-place orders were issued, the numbers are 60% and 40% respectively. 

For prospective homebuyers, a majority of the participants prefer ready-to-move-in properties and 85% said complete units were preferable to a property still under construction. 

ANAROCK reported that out of the total number of unsold inventory of over 6,440 units across the top seven cities in India, nearly 12% of those homes are ready to move into.

The ANAROCK report also showed that out of the total number of unsold stock of ready-to-move-in homes is worth approximately US$8,536.

Anuj Puri, Chairman, ANAROCK Property Consultants, said:

“Of the total unsold ready stock, the Mumbai and Pune regions together have approximately 35,200 units, which are collectively worth Rs 37,550 crore (approximately US$48,591). This accounts for 57 percent of the total value of ready to move unsold homes across all top seven cities. NCR is next with 15,600 unsold ready units, followed by Bengaluru with nearly 10,100 apartments. Hyderabad has the least unsold ready stock of 2,400 homes worth Rs 1,870 crore (approximately US$1,313).” 

Experts theorize that the reasoning behind this behavior of delaying plans to buy is because of the uncertainty of the future of the market. The survey showed that 56% of the participants are worried about the market and 30% were concerned about the financial aspect of it all. 

Moreover, 31% of the participants were still confident in investing in real estate, 24% were considering fixed deposits, 24% have the most confidence in gold, and 21% were confident in the stock market the most. 

Following the global trend, and thanks to the impact of the COVID-19 virus running rampant around the world, Indians are turning more towards property portals to conduct real estate transactions as opposed to the traditional model.