Sales across metros are likely to breach pre-pandemic level this year

- Sriram Mahadevan

Managing Director, Joyville Shapoorji Housing

How has the realty sector evolved post-COVID and what is the present scenario?

Real estate is one of the country's major contributors to the economy. However, the global pandemic has completely changed the way we live, work, learn and play. Covid-19 imposed upon the world an unprecedented number of transformative changes, posing significant challenges but also bringing with it opportunities for businesses. The ambiguities caused by the pandemic have driven a lot of new trends and developments, impacting the potential, purchasing power, and buying behaviour of the homebuyer. The market has moved favourably by adopting new ways, demonstrating good growth for the sector.

Additionally, the government's push is also boosting investor confidence. As per reports, despite the rise in mortgage and property rates, sales across metros are likely to breach the pre-pandemic level this year. We believe the housing market is on a growth trajectory and is now at the beginning of a long-term upcycle after enduring four consecutive disruptions in the form of demonetisation, RERA, GST, and Covid-19 over the course of the last six years. The pandemic has sparked a need for home ownership, which has boosted demand for home buying. Homebuyers are upgrading themselves. They are looking for aspirational homes that are spacious with bigger balconies, gated communities, open spaces surrounded by greenery, and state-of-the-art amenities that match their lifestyle.

With rising interest rates, do you see a downturn in demand for realty projects?

The RBI's decision to consecutively hike the interest rate by 50 basis points was expected to combat inflationary growth in the country. We believe the home loan rates even now are at a reasonable level, and hence residential sales growth is not expected to be hampered in the long run. However, there might be a temporary slowdown if the rates go beyond 9 per cent due to further rise in interest rates. Furthermore, the pandemic has caused a paradigm shift in people wanting to buy homes rather than rent them. With the onset of the festive season, we anticipate that consumer demand will remain buoyant as it increases across segments, from affordable to mid-size to luxury housing.

Can you comment on some of your major forthcoming projects?

So far, Joyville has launched six housing projects in four major cities, such as Mumbai (Joyville Virar), Pune (Joyville Hinjewadi, Joyville Hadapsar Annexe and Joyville Sensorium), Kolkata (Joyville Howrah) and Haryana (Joyville Gurugram). We will very soon be launching another new project in Pune, along with phase launches of ongoing projects.

There has been a steep hike in the cost of construction materials in the recent past. How much effect it had on your company finances in terms of percentage?

Over the past 2-3 years, it has been witnessed that several major global events, including the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war, have greatly disrupted supply chain continuity and have adversely impacted production levels worldwide. This has led to delays in the delivery of raw materials and goods, resulting in shortages as well as an increase in prices of finished goods. All this has a spiralling effect on real estate projects. The unexpected rise in raw materials has increased the cost of production anywhere between 10 to 15 per cent. There was an expectation that the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war would cease but owing to its continuance even now, moderation of the input cost inflation has not been on expected lines, thereby, impacting margins. In the segment that we operate in, there is little to no headroom to absorb these shocks, and thus the same has been to some extent passed on to the consumers in the form of a price increase.

How is green transformation gaining pace in realty projects?

As India pledges to become a low-carbon economy, the real estate industry has a vital role to play in the climate transition and in accelerating decarbonisation efforts. This includes measuring and reducing the environmental impact of its operations on a regular basis. There has been a massive awareness of sustainability and green development worldwide. A shift toward sustainability is also relevant today, as buyer sentiment towards the environment becomes more pronounced. Developers have also recognised the importance of green development and are coming up with projects consisting of IGBC and Edge certification and green-enabled buildings.

The use of renewable energy sources and environment-friendly measures are now prominently included in their design and development plans. Even the environment ministry ensures to lay down certain actions to be taken by the developers while granting environment clearance for the project. Thus, there is a conscious effort on all accounts to make the developments more and more sustainable and environmentally-friendly.

What are the sustainability initiatives taken by your company in terms of building materials, product solutions and technologies?

At Joyville, we are committed to sustainable construction. We have increased our focus on the environment by saving 20 per cent energy, 20 per cent water and 20 per cent embodied energy. This is done by implementing sustainable features at various stages of construction, right from design to technologies used for construction to the actual structure of the building.

All our Joyville projects are committed to EDGE for Green Building Certification. A few of our projects are IGBC Gold pre-certified too. We use eco-friendly building materials during construction that have recycled content. We also use paints that have low VOC and are health friendly.

Hits: 0