Demand for residential properties up 15-30% this festive season: Report

Representative image

Demand for residential properties has increased by 15-30 percent this festive season, especially in Tier 1 cities where majority of buyers are preferring ready-to-move-in units, according to a new research report.

Amenities have emerged the main deciding factor for buying into a housing project, the report by Clicbrics said.

In tier-I cities, property enquires have increased by 15-20 percent and nearly 70 percent of them are for ready-to-move-in properties. Wherein for tier-II cities, the demand for properties have increased by 20-30 percent, it said.

The mix is quite broad based, with 30-35 percent enquiries coming in for low rise apartments, 50 percent for plots and 15-20 percent for high-rise apartments, the report said.

However, in tier-II cities, price was the prime factor regardless of whether the property was under construction or ready-to-move-in.

Tier-II cities have fared better as the cost of ownership of plots or apartments was less compared to tier-I cities. Tier-II cities have also seen improved traction due to better affordability.

Amenities are an important deciding factor for property purchase besides the size and the cost of the unit. Swimming pool, sport zones and clubhouses are the most searched amenities among buyers, the report said.

The report also said that buyers in the age group of 30-45 years searched the most number of properties in tier-I  out of which 83 percent were male and 17 percent were female. However, in tier-II cities, the age group was slightly higher at 35-55 years, wherein 74 percent were male buyers and 26 percent were female, the report said.

As for the ratio between the number of actual transactions closed and general queries, it was anything between 2 to 5 percent for every 100 leads, where 67 consisted of genuine and interested customers and remaining 33 were customers who had general queries.

NRIs are also open to buying properties but the demand is restricted to tier-I cities and A class developers. While there are a good number of enquires by NRI clients, genuine deals are being closed only during holiday and festive season when they are actually visiting India, the report added.

"The RBI has announced a repo rate cut recently wherein home loan rates are likely to fall by 25 basis points for new borrowers and EMIs are expected to decrease further. Considering the current festive offers, buyers should definitely invest in real estate now," said Rohit Malik, founder and CEO, Clicbrics.