By Rajat Rastogi, Executive Director, Runwal Group
Sector Performance in 2022
The real estate market saw a steady growth post the pandemic years and a strong performance was seen in 2022. The pandemic had made people realize the need of owning a home, leading to a surge in demand. Various offers by developers gave further impetus to the industry. Many first-time millennial homebuyers too entered the market and developers with quality products, strong delivery track record and sound financial health witnessed a significant upswing in business.
Location, connectivity and amenities became crucial deciding factors for the consumer. Many of them also realized they needed a larger space. An extra room has become important for consumers in view of the work from home routines. Community living has now become a sought-after aspect. Homes in developments with better health and wellness facilities took precedence. Projects with large open spaces and integrated townships are in demand because facilities like club, gym, recreation, garden areas and even daily essential stores are all located within the premises. The pandemic had changed not only buying preferences but also selling methods. Developers have invested in technology and digital channels to reach out to consumers in a more efficient way.
At Runwal Group, we continue to see robust sales growth across all our projects in MMR. We have achieved our best ever sales numbers this year, which enabled us to increase the prices across the portfolio, ensuring capital appreciation to our customers. Our projects had multiple new launches and possessions too continued as per plan, keeping our consistent delivery track record intact. This year we also introduced our new portfolio with large commercial and retail assets, both in Mumbai and MMR.Our rapid construction pace even during the pandemic, attractive offers and quality product offerings at a reasonable price point have been the hallmark of our consistent success. Lastly, we also invested heavily in technology, digitizing our sales process, making it far more streamlined and convenient for the consumers, keeping customer centricity at the core of our growth philosophy.
Outlook 2023
For our residential portfolio, we expect demand to remain robust, especially in the affordable housing segment and in ready to move in or soon to be ready projects. Prices will firm up owing to the rising input costs as at some point developers will have to stop absorbing further increase in input costs. Keeping aside the concern of the rising interest rates, the growth momentum should continue and the real estate sector should see a great 2023.
For our commercial & retail business, we expect significant momentum and increased sales & leasing velocity as the demand is good and the overall commercial real estate segment is on the upswing.
As a group, we have seen significant increase in revenues consistently and we expect the same trend to continue in 2023. We have a positive outlook as new launches, deliveries and further expansions are in the pipeline for the year across all our asset classes.
Also Read: How is Indian real estate gearing up for a greener future?
