Discount drives property sale during lockdown

Leading developers and property consultants in NCR have claimed to achieve 50% of sale during lockdown in comparison with the same period, last year. Discount up to 10%, reduction in home loan interest, less booking amount is driving the sale, developers told ET.

“We came out with 'Lockdown offer' for our commercial as well as residential projects where we asked the buyer to pay Rs one lakh to book as against the full booking amount, the rest of the amount could be paid within the 100 days,” Manoj Gaur, MD, Gaurs Group.

He said that bookings of more than 700 units valued at around Rs 225 crore across various projects located in Delhi NCR were made in two months, which is 50% of what was in 2019.


All these bookings have been made online and contrary to the current trend of home buyers opting for ready to move-in, Gaurs have received most of the bookings – around 80% of its booking for its under construction projects.

NCR based real estate consulting company, Investors Clinic reported that the company has made more than 500 transactions worth 200 crores plus in May 2020.
Due to Covid, there has been a considerable drop in sales but the consultant has been able to sell properties worth Rs 6.50 crore every day.

“Maintaining our past records, Investors Clinic has been able to deliver decent numbers to our partners group even in these tough times. We have been able to help them to sell their inventories,” said Honeyy Katiyal, Founder, Investors Clinic.

“Our suggestion to developers has been to consider selling inventories rather than holding them for post Covid scenario, even if they are making marginal or nominal profits,” he added.

“Site visits have always been an essential element in real estate and it is extremely difficult to imagine that buyers would book units visiting the project site,” said Sarthak Gaur, Head – Business Development, Gaurs Group.

Developers say various measures such as online bookings, online payments, eased out down payment schemes, and lowest ever home loan interest rates in the last decade, helped the sector to sail through the difficult time.

Realtors came out with offers and schemes from 6 months EMI free to the donation of booking amount to PM Relief Fund.

“There was an upsurge amongst the buyers to own a home in a group housing project as people were able to see the positives of a group housing during the lockdown. In the last couple of weeks, we have made bookings from people who had the liquidity but were short of ideas to invest,” said Yash Miglani, MD, Migsun.

According to Investors Clinic, majority of the bookings are from Delhi/ NCR, around 85-90%. the rest 15-20% is from West and South. The sale in luxury segment has been comparatively low, around 5-10%. Affordable housing and mix of small ticket commercials with assured returns have seen a huge demand during the lockdown period.

NCR based Migsun group has recorded residential sale of Rs 252 crore during lockdown against R 325 crore in April and May last year.

It said that the company managed to sell 500 units during the lockdown between March 25th and 3rd June. The units accounted for a total saleable area 7 lakh sq ft, which the Company has booked at an average price of Rs 3600 per sq ft. In terms of per unit realisation, Migsun has sold 500 units at an average price of Rs 50 lakh approximately.

Most of the sales have happened at Migsun’s projects, which are located in Greater Noida (UP) and in Ghaziabad (UP) in regions like Vasundhara, Kausambhi, Indirapuram, Vaishali and Rajnagar Extension.