The Real (Estate) Question

Residential properties have been navigating a slump for half a decade, while offices see a boom. When will the tide turn?

- Samar Srivastava

A decade ago, an Indian real estate investor would have bought residential, gone short on office property and looked up a dictionary to understand the meaning of ‘coworking’. Ten years on, the tables have turned: They can’t get enough of office property, residential sales are slow and co-working spaces have blossomed.

It’s all part of a bottom-up transformation that Indian real estate is undergoing. The rules of the game are being rewritten, often at considerable pain for the incumbents. Hopefully, a leaner, execution-focused industry will emerge out of this, one that works for buyers, sellers and investors. “There is slowly emerging a clear differentiation in the market and just because you are big doesn’t mean you’re fine,” says Niranjan Hiranandani, co-founder and managing director of the Hiranandani Group.

After half a decade of slow demand for residential properties, could 2019 be the year the tide turns? With 80 percent of the market residential, that’s the number one question being asked. A revival both in sentiment and demand is eagerly awaited. While developers have latched on to a few

green shoots, they’ll also admit that a broad-based revival is nowhere on the horizon. In the forthcoming Budget, they’d like the government to increase the tax incentives on affordable housing and reduce the goods and services tax (GST) on under-construction property and cement.