75% Builders in Delhi NCR Expect Property Prices to Rise in 2018-19: OLX Delhi-NCR Realty Survey

New Delhi, April 6th 2018

OLX, India’s largest classifieds marketplace for Real Estate, Automobiles, Goods and Services, released findings from its Delhi-NCR Realty Survey. OLX conducted the survey to understand the market expectations of Builders and Property consultants in 2018-19. In addition, the survey intended to measure the adoption of online platforms and its impact on property consultants in Delhi-NCR.  The findings from the survey are based on the responses collected from 200 Housing Builders and Consultants in Delhi, Gurugram, Faridabad and Ghaziabad area.

Online platforms preferred by property consultants

Online property portals are gaining traction among property consultants in Delhi NCR. Half of the consultants prefer online medium for the number of leads it offers to them, followed by 39 percent select online platforms for the quantity of leads/ inquiries and 11 percent prefers being cost effective as compared to offline mediums.  Almost one third of the property consultants received more than 50% of buyer leads through online sources.

Prices expected to rise in 2018

As per the study, 75 percent of the builders expect the property prices to increase in 2018-19, indicating revival of Delhi-NCR’s real estate market. Builders expect that regulatory developments will improve transparency in the system, eventually boosting the confidence of buyers and sellers at large.

Affordable Housing to pick up pace

With most builders launching multiple projects in the next 12-18 months, the survey indicates that 55% are planning Affordable Housing Projects (less than Rs. 40 Lacs) as part of their portfolio. Mid-segment (Rs. 40 Lacs to 1 Crore) projects continue to attract the most interest, with 65% builders focusing on this range, while 15% developers said luxury projects (above Rs. 1 Crore) would be part of their portfolio. Demand too seems to be rising: of the inquires received by property consultants through online real estate portals, one third were for affordable housing projects.

Ready-to-move houses in demand

As per the survey, 80 percent property consultants said demand for Ready-to-move houses will rise in the next 12-18 months. This may be due to uncertainty in the sector after RERA & GST implementation, with completion time of projects getting impacted.

Real Estate is among the fastest growing categories on OLX. One in every five user on the platform visits the Real Estate section, highlighting the increasing interest of consumers in buying, selling and renting properties online.  There are over 1.2 Billion page views every month on the Real Estate category on OLX. As of date, there are 350,000 live listings on the Real Estate section, within which 50 percent are affordable projects (less than 40 lacs), 35 percent are mid segment (40 lacs to 1 crore) and 15 percent are premium properties of above 1 crore.

Said, Irwin Preet Singh Anand, COO, OLX India, “The study allows us to understand the evolving sentiment of builders and consultants in Delhi-NCR. The year 2018 could possibly be the year of come back, as the real estate community expect high demand for ready-to-move houses. To cater to the changing market conditions, real estate category on OLX is strongly positioned to offer buyers and sellers the benefit of reaching out to an exclusive base of individuals and business users on the platform, in the most convenient way through our user-friendly app experience. Given the positive sentiment reflected by the real estate community, our aim is to expand our reach to  property consultants by 2x on our platform and support the existing ones to effectively grow their business”

A user on OLX spends on an average 10 minutes every visit, that is twice as compared to any vertical player in Real Estate (Source: Similarweb). Every time a property is listed on OLX, it receives an average of 12 inquiries from prospective buyers. In quarter ending March 2018, OLX registered 65 percent jump in registered property seekers on the platform, from 30 lakhs in December 2017 to 50 lakhs in March 2018.  There are over 15,000 property consultants on the platforms, across 100+ cities.