Indian real estate sector resilient despite COVID-19 second wave

V Nagarajan

At a time when lockdowns are impacting the normal activity across cities in India, a number of developers are protecting the migrant workers from leaving the construction sites by ensuring availability of basic facilities for their safety.

This has not only helped to curtail the adverse impact of labour shortage but also ensured that disruption is kept to the minimum.

In the changing demand pattern, the pandemic has boosted the need for larger apartments, independent homes and smaller projects.

With WFH option necessitating the need for larger homes, even rental options are being sought for in cities.

Built units are getting absorbed enabling developers to clear their unsold inventory. Home loans grew 9.6 per cent in the first nine months of FY21 to Rs 22.3 lakh crore.

Anarock survey reveals that as many as 58,290 homes were sold in the top seven cities in Q1, 2021 in comparison to 45,200 units in Q1 2020.

Debt instrument will continue to remain the key source of funding major sectors while last-mile funding opportunities being evaluated by PE funds, primarily for residential developers.

The government’s special investment fund SWAMIH has been managed by SBICap Ventures and the independent investment committee has so far given 72 final approvals and 132 preliminary approvals, taking the total number of approved projects to 204.

The sanctioned amount for these projects is Rs18,546 crore, while the total project costs are at Rs54,520 crore, which will create a total of 1,16,572 home units, according to government sources.

On the flip side, commercial realty has been adversely impacted with WFH option and the continued disruption in commuting across locations in any city.

Industry data and Anarock research reveal that over 7,400 leases spanning approximately 90 million sq. ft. area will come up for renewal in 2021 across the top six commercial real estate hubs such as Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Gurugram and Noida.

Data further reveals that 2021 has the highest lease expiry in the pipeline when compared to 2022 and 2023.

Year 2022 will see nearly 7,000 leases for approximately 78 million sq. ft. come up for renewal, and approximately.4,200 leases for over 55 million sq. ft. in 2023.

CBRE predicts that e-commerce and third-party logistics will remain as the biggest catalysts for change post COVID-19; a higher preference for larger tech-enhanced spaces (more than 100,000 sq. ft.) expected.

As regards retailing, growing acceptance of online shopping is resulting in more omni-channel retail, however preserving the “physical experience” will be a critical component of these omnichannel strategies.

Above all, there is no denying that construction of infrastructure and real estate create about five times the jobs for the money spent relative to the number of jobs generated per unit of investment in other sectors of the economy according to Rajiv Kumar, Vice-chairman of Niti Aayog.

My father has not left any Will when he passed away and there is a mortgage loan pending with an institution. As we are working in the Gulf, what is the procedure to be followed normally in such cases? Dinesh Pande, Sharjah.

Generally, when a borrower dies, the bank or the lender will approach the guarantor and in the absence of guarantor, the legal heir will be approached for transfer in his/her name. The legal heir will be responsible for the outstanding payment. It is not clear whether your father has opted for a loan repayment insurance.

Again to transfer the property as well as the loan to the legal heir, there is a requirement of no-objection certificate from the lender. Once you have ascertained other issues in the instant case, you can approach the lender.

After the demise of the parents, there is disagreement among siblings in the family. Being one of the family members, can I apply for legal heir certificate? Are there restrictions? Senthilkumar, Dubai.

Legal heir ship certificate can be applied by any of the legal heirs and there is no restriction. You should mention while applying the name of the deceased as well as the date of death together with a copy of the death certificate. The tahsildar, after conducting due enquiry with all concerned, will issue a certificate mentioning all the heirs who succeeded to the estate.