SMC Realty drives real estate deals through virtual site visits during lockdown

COVID-19 pandemic has world-over affected the way businesses are carried out as constant lockdowns made it impossible to meet clients face-to-face. However, every calamity throws up an opportunity and COVID-19 is no different. It has made business owners brainstorm for alternate ways of carrying out their core functions and come up with new strategies. In such times, technology, having enabled people interact with one another with screen sharing and various other functionalities through mobile apps like Zoom and Microsoft Teams has come to the rescue.

SMC Real Estate Advisors Pvt. Ltd., India’s leading real estate advisor conducted virtual meetings with more than 2,000 unique clients during lockdown period. “There were a lot of uncertainties when the lockdown began especially because the nature of real estate business is such that it’s heavily dependent on F2F meetings with clients followed by site visits. However, with great support from our developer partners and the pro-activeness of our sales team, we went in with all aggression and made best use of technology. We started meeting our old/new/prospective clients on video conference and assisted them with digital site walk through. The concept became an instant hit as many clients booked their dream homes through us digitally during the lockdown.” said Anshika Aggarwal, Group Director, SMC.

Mumbai recorded maximum number of virtual meetings followed by Lucknow, Bangalore and Delhi NCR.

The lockdown and resulting isolation of people in their homes has made spacious living a desire and made people realise that owning a house is far better than rented accommodation when dealing with life’s uncertainties. The crisis has also seemed to have established the importance of real estate as a dependable asset that can be used for investment purpose or for personal use. “Repo rate cut of 40 basis points by RBI has made interest rates on home loans as low as 6.85% resulting in clients rushing to take real estate decisions. The low interest rate regime is expected to boost the demand for residential real estate on a sustainable basis. Also, the continuation of credit linked subsidy scheme (CLSS) announced by Hon’bl Finance Minister in the Atmanirbhar Bharat Package would supplement the bullishness in the affordable housing segment for low and mid-income groups.” said Dr. D.K. Aggarwal, Chairman SMC Realty and President of PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

Nearly all sectors have transformed their way of working during lockdown and technology has played a major role. The key lies in how early organisations adapt to the changing ways of doing business.

(This is a partnered post)