Does Festival Season Ensure Bright Real Estate Business?

In India, the festive season is considered to be the most auspicious time for making investments in real estate. We generally find a lot of people delay the decision to buy a property only to invest during the festive occasions. It appears that many link investing in properties during festivals with prosperity. There is a belief that purchasing property on a celebrated day like Diwali or Dussehra brings one immense fortune and prosperity.

This results in the increase in the number inquiries pertaining to the property market during the festive months. Festivals are not merely a time to enjoy but also play an important role in boosting the country's economy. 

While many buyers follow a wait-and-watch policy, the festive season is the time to kick starts the buying activities. This belief was validated during the festival season of 2021, when the real estate sector, which was down as a result of the pandemic bounced back with the sales across eight major cities went up by 92% between July to September. 

It was also found that majority of urban Indians believed that the best time to invest in real estate is during the festival season.  India sees a huge surge in purchases every year during these festive seasons and almost all industries benefit from it, getting a lot of momentum during this period.  

Therefore, it’s more than likely those home buyers who held back before will start actively buying or will at least start looking around for properties during this period. Majority of the developers are expecting the market to pick up as the festival season starts as most of them are already back on track with their projects and assets. 

There are predominantly a few major factors which propel the sale of properties during the festive season. One which has been mentioned earlier it is considered as an auspicious time to invest in something valuable. 

Besides, it is also a time when builders launch new projects and developers generally roll out interesting offers and schemes to attract buyers to their projects. However, the biggest factor which is driving people to invest in real estate property today is their experience during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The lockdown has made people rethink about their priorities in terms of investments and there is a realisation that owning a home is most importance as it provides comfort and security. As most of the companies have adopted hybrid work culture they are now at flexible workspaces for their employees. 

This has led to buyers looking for large and spacious homes. Distance do not seem to be a major criteria anymore and so if a homebuyer finds the dream home in the distant suburbs or beyond, he is ready to shell out the money for it. With so many factors coming into the picture, the real estate sector has a lot to rejoice about during this festive season! 

As a result of intense competition amongst the developers, most of them provide heavy discounts and offers in the form of freebies and relaxation in payment options during festive season. 

The developers also offer a number of promotional schemes to attract the buyers in the market which can be on selected inventories in the form of free stamp duty which means the buyer only have to pay for the house. Banks also offer their lowest interest rates during these celebrations aimed at encouraging people to buy new homes and property. 

In addition to this, some real estate developers have also introduced new, more flexible schemes like postpaid homes and variable rent rates to entice fence-sitters. Lowering down of interest rates by the banks during this time is an important factor that adds to the desire of the homebuyers towards buying a home of their own and aids to the home buying spree. 

Besides easy financing options to free international air tickets, developers in India today are giving out a slew of offers for the festive season. Some of these are branded air-conditioners, modular kitchens, four-wheelers, free car park space and gold coins for free on each purchase of homes. Few of them are also waiving floor-rise charges to entice customers. 

The offers given by the developers during this period are unique, competitive and even customized to suit the targeted markets.  Even from a homebuyer’s perspective, festive season is one of the best periods to look for ideal homes, as the developers consistently make an attempt to respond to the improved market sentiments and increased in demand. 

The market is flooded with many offers and incentives from the developers because of which the festive season exhibits a significant increase in the quantum of property transactions  making it an ideal time which the developers and the home-buyers can equally look forward to. 

Developer associations also organise property exhibitions during this period across mojor cities and towns to attract more customers to buy properties at various locations. 

As regards whether sales will pick up during this festive season or not, housing expert and developers are quite positive. While there is a viewpoint that unlike in the past, festive season does not really matters to new home buyers especially in the post pandemic period. 

From buying on an auspicious occasion to taking a decision to buy a new home, there has been a clear shift in the purchase pattern among India's young home buyers. However, majority believe there will be a significant improvement in sales demand during the coming festive season. Developers are firmly of the opinion that festive offers and discounts would definitely help the new home buyers to take a decision.