The Real Estate Podcast
Hosted by: Gurpreet Jaggi
Speakers:
- Pramit Parikh, Parikh Real Estate Management services.
- Irshad Ahmed, Irshads Property Matters, Bangalore.
- Vinod Thakkar, Squarefeet Consultant Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai.
- Dr. Bharat Covid specialist from Bombay also a customer.
Listen to the podcast here.
The podcast started with Irshad Ahmed sharing how the real estate market suffered during the pandemic since everyone was stuck in the lockdown. This made everyone yearn for bigger spaces and realise what they really wanted from their homes. Interestingly, Covid led to the sales of more villas rather than apartments. The sales of plotted developments saw a huge boost. Bangalore being the IT hub saw a lot of growth around property transactions and hence topped the charts when it came to people investing in buying properties. The virus however led to the shutdown of several commercial activities. No one anticipated how badly the virus would affect real estate. Though the demands for warehousing had gone up even in these times but not the commercial places.
For the first time, technology was used in this industry for ground work. The lockdown saw the industry move to online platforms. People interested in properties ended up buying them via online transactions during the first wave of Covid. All of the ready properties that had been viewed by the customers were sold to them at 13-14% discounted rates.
Gujarat being the land of investment, like any other city, was also affected in a similar way. However, the first thing that every realtor did was protect their employees. Most realtors supported their employees during this time. There were no job losses. Locals in Gujarat were a bit sceptical but the market saw the influx of NRI investors. The property prices were pretty much the same and the investors made deals on their terms.
Panellists also took questions from the listeners. One such question was related to investing in properties going into redevelopment. Here’s what our experts said:
- Redevelopment can be risky
- Policies are bound to change from time to time
- Stand-alone property is better
- Redevelopment of small plots in a cluster would be fruitful rather than investing in individual small plots
Podcast Nuggets:
- Prime locations barely saw changes in their pricing because developers abided by their price.
- All the transactions had a lot of first-time buyers.
- Stock market saw a boost. Many shares of so many companies saw a boom and sold plenty.
- People considered buying properties a safer way of investing their money rather than in other industries.
- If Covid hadn’t happened, there would have been a hike in prices.
Offer for you: *Fair in Bangalore* Parikh Real Estate Management services has tied up with Great India Property Festival and is organizing a fair for all investors on 2nd and 3rd October, JW Mariott, Bangalore.
Project Alert: Great opportunity in commercial investments. Entry level investments start at 25 lakhs. Returns above 8% are ensured. Jaipur, Mahendra knowledge park, Andheri East.