AHMEDABAD: After facing a slowdown for a few months in the post-lockdown period, most real estate sites in Gujarat have come back to life with the return of the majority of migrant workers.
Now, measures such as stamp-duty reduction and the availability of funds from banks are required to revive and boost the real estate demand across the state. This was the opinion expressed by industry leaders and experts during the ‘Reboot Real Estate’ session conducted as part of TOI’s Virtual Conclave titled ‘Getting Back Dhandho: Making Gujarat Future Positive.’
Nearly 85% of the migrant workers employed in the state’s real estate sector are back, said real estate consultancy firm Knight Frank India’s national director, industrial and logistics, Balbirsingh Khalsa. “As far as Gujarat is concerned, almost 80- 85% of the real estate projects are back on track now,” Khalsa said. As compared to this, only 30-40% of the projects have resumed in Mumbai with the financial capital of India still under lockdown.
“We were apprehensive that migrant workers will not return before Diwali due to the good monsoon,” said Jaxay Shah, national chairman, CREDAI, the apex body of real estate developers in India. “With workers, however, coming back, most of the developer sites are back on track after a delay of a few months due to the lockdown,” Shah said. About 50 lakh workers are employed in the construction sector every year, of whom 80% are migrants. The real estate session of the conclave was moderated by Sunil Parekh, advisor to Zydus Cadila Group and Jubilant Bhartia Group and the founding curator of Ahmedabad Global Shapers, a World Economic Forum Initiative.
Even as the real estate sector was looking up after facing a few tough years since the implementation of RERA and GST, the pandemic and the lockdown stymied growth. “In the first three months after the pandemic, the demand was almost zero. However, the demand has gradually grown since June thanks to a good monsoon and increasing migration from rural to urban areas,” Shah added. “Real estate is bouncing back with consumers visiting real estate sites again. The conversion ratio has not risen but customer inquiries have begun pouring in.”
Source: TOI