India is geared up for a sharp rebound recovery in 2021 with a double-digit growth.

Rajat Johar, Country Head, Skootr

Sectors such as office, retail, residential, industrial & logistics have shown signs of green shoots. We are expecting that in 2021, the industry will see a rise in demand and a healthy growth of existing and upcoming infrastructure, says Rajat Johar, Country Head, Skootr. Excerpts from the interview…

What is your outlook for the Real Estate Sector for 2021 as a whole?

Despite the short-term challenges, the real estate sector witnessed a paradigm shift, Commercial Real Estate segment witnessed strong interest from sectors such as technology, consumer durables, BPOs, banking and financial services leading to a forward-looking annual growth in office absorption. After the unlocking of the economy in July 2020, the market traction started to improve as total transactions and office completion have recovered by 80% and 126% respectively in 3rd Quarter of 2020. Additionally, the sentiment towards office space remained positive giving way to newer avenues in India. Multiple new assets such as REITs, data centers, warehousing, cold storage units and student housing have evolved and gained momentum in the recent months, restoring the confidence of investors in the real estate market.

With several initiatives to support residential real estate, steps such as stamp duty reduction by Maharashtra government and all-time low interest rates have given a boost to the demand for the housing sector. Affordable housing and completed projects have also seen recovery, moreover, the festive quarter saw significant rise in the sale of housing units. 

What are the major anticipated challenges, and your suggestions to iron out those?

While the path to economic recovery depends on how long the pandemic lasts and vaccine accessibility to everyone around the world, we can observe the bottleneck constraints easing in every sector. Global logistics investment increased 47 percent from the second quarter with investment in the real estate market amounting to the maximum percentage. This indicates that investors are looking for opportunities in the sector after the steady economic recovery continues.

2020 will be the remembered as a year with the major challenge of ensuring survival; of changing the real estate industry with enhanced use of technology and digitalization. With real estate sectors having to close physical facilities due to lockdown and prepare for reopening keeping health and safety of the employees and occupiers as paramount. The real estate market should start capitalizing on these opportunities by undergoing a transformation in order to redefine workspaces to meet the needs of the new normal.

What policy or regulatory support do you expect from concerned authorities?

The government has announced two stimulus packages of over 10% of GDP to help people and businesses respond to the crisis. Fresh measures aimed at improving infrastructure, regulations, and job opportunities and their timeliness will likely aid in sustained economic recovery and rebuilding. Given the tremendous creativity of the industry, coupled with its innate optimism, the Real estate is in a position to provide leadership and necessary bold actions to help restore the economy.

Brief us on the wish list for the forthcoming budget?

The recent stimulus package announced by the government was intended to enable growth by providing liquidity schemes for stressed, smaller enterprises as well as financing companies, relaxing norms for the housing sector. Real estate and Infrastructure sectors continue to attract plenty of attention both from the regulators and investors. We anticipate the upcoming Budget for Financial Year (FY) 2020-21 to relax stamp duty for commercial real estate, offer single-window clearance and GST reforms. These positive steps will help ease out the current state of liquidity crunch, also this will encourage investors for locking in a long-term deal and will further help in the market recovery.

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