slashed their interest rates to a record low, along with several festive season offers for potential homebuyers. For instance, the biggest lender in the South Asian nation, the State Bank of India (SBI) announced a 6.7 per cent home loan rate in mid-September, followed by Kotak Mahindra Bank, who slashes its rate to 6.5 per cent until 8 November, while this was matched by Bank of Baroda, in an offer is valid from 7 October up until New Year’s Eve.
According to experts, these ultra-low interest rates, together with improved demand from the mid-segment buyer are playing a significant role in driving up overall sales numbers of developers and brokerage firms during this festive quarter, while several other factors have also contributed to this recent growth.
“This festive season was quite overwhelming for most of the developers including us, around 30-35% of yearly budgeted numbers have been achieved in last 45 days that can be attributed to the fact that, following COVID-19 first wave, people have realised the importance of owning a home and having a sense of security amid uncertainty and the transformed work culture to WFH or new way of life,” Sandeep Katiyar, chief executive of real estate firm 1 OAK, said.
Meanwhile, some organisations rolled out a host of incentives for their employees on account of the sales growth. “We have distributed 56 cars, eight bikes and six properties and cheques to most of our employees as the sale increased in comparison with last year,” Sachin Arora, corporate director of real estate consultancy Investors Clinic, said. “The employees faced tough time during COVID and this was the best opportunity to thank them.”
Within two weeks of its launch, industrial real estate agency Smartworld managed to record combined sales worth ₹20 billion (US$268.8 million) from its two projects, Smartworld Gems and Smartworld Orchard. Meanwhile, Elite Landbase, another real estate consultant in Gurugram, said its sales figures during the festival season reached ₹4.25 billion, a sharp increase from the ₹2.9 billion recorded during the same period last year.
