Desire for a Safe Location Drives Home Purchase for Half of the Millennials

Hyderabad, 20th July 2017

A new research by OLX and Kantar TNS highlights that home buying trends are being influenced by the ease provided by online property platforms, and the entry of millennial buyers in the market.

Almost four out of five people now rely on online property sites to find leads and information related to the homes they are interested in, revealed the report. The survey results also showed that millennials between the age of 30-34 years placed more importance on safety, and security of the home than on return on investment, fancy amenities, and proximity to work, which some of the older age-groups preferred.

The research was conducted with more than 600 respondents in Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Thiruvananthapuram by Kantar TNS, a leading market research firm. The survey interviewed people who were looking to buy a home in the next six months, and sought to understand the user behaviour in an evolving real-estate market.

Said Irwin Preet Singh Anand, COO, OLX India, “Real Estate is one of our fastest growing categories. Listings on OLX grew at 55%, and property seekers grew at 70% in the last quarter, showing strong signs of recovery post demonetization induced slowdown. Hyderabad is one of our fastest growing markets with robust buyer demand across houses and apartments, but particularly high for open plots. Our growth efforts in the city are supported by a local sales team, helping agents and developers market on the OLX platform.”

OLX is one of the largest Real Estate platforms in the country with 2.5 lakh+ live listings, and more than 30 lakh registered property seekers. Besides individual sellers and buyers, OLX also boasts of more than 7,000 agents, who deal in primary, secondary and rental properties across 100+ cities, the widest reach by any real estate portal. Each real-estate Ad on OLX garners on an average 500 views.

“Indian Real Estate market is at a critical juncture, with strong regulatory momentum through RERA and GST around the corner. The sector is expected to be more professionalized and transparent, enhancing buyer trust and consequently driving transactions. As more and more buyers turn to OLX, this research will strengthen our understanding of the home-buyer’s needs, and will improve our offering to help them discover their dream homes,” added Anand.

Key triggers for buying a home

According to the research, most people primarily want to buy a home because they consider it to be a good investment, with 65% of the respondents stating that it was the main trigger for them to consider purchasing a home. This was closely followed by 60% of the respondents, who said that they want to buy a home in order to move to a safer locality, and 58% percent who said that space and a bigger home were the key triggers for them.

However, a deep-dive into different cities revealed that each city has its own distinct reasons for considering home purchase. Bangaloreans paid most attention to how safe their investment was in the home they were considering. They also looked at better amenities (gym, swimming pool among others), and security while buying a home. For Hyderabadis too, a desire to make a safe investment, closely followed by the wish to live in a safe location, was the most important reason for considering residential property purchase. For Delhi-ites, reduced travel time to work, followed by a good return on investment were the key factors while considering a home for purchase.

Millennials desire a safe and secure locality

Looking at various age-groups, the survey revealed that for 51% of the millennials between 30- 34 years of age, the need for security and safety of the location mattered the most, closely followed by the wish to make a safe investment. Those between 35-39 years also placed most importance on safety and security of the location. For 40-49 year olds, safety of the investment was the biggest consideration. Sixty-four percent of the respondents between 50-55 years of age wanted to buy a new home as their current home was unable to meet their changing requirements.

Immediate triggers for home purchase

The survey also looked at reasons that lead people to start considering a home purchase in near future. Drop in property rates is the biggest reason for people to immediately start looking at potential homes for purchase with one-third of the survey respondents claiming so. Another 23% of the respondents said that instant availability of the required funds prompted them to look at buying a home.

A new life-stage was also a time to consider buying a home. Thirteen percent of the respondents said that extension in the family such as parents moving in was a time to consider buying a home, and 11% said that the arrival of a baby prompted them to think about investing in a house.

Online property portals top destination for information and leads  

Buying a home requires immense amount of research. Almost four out of five respondents said that they are using online property portals for information and leads, and half the respondents said that online property platforms were their primary source for information and leads.

The research also revealed that nearly 70% of the people relied on word-of-mouth sources, and 44% sought real estate brokers to get information and leads.

Two-thirds of real-estate agents are discovered through online portals

On an average, a potential home buyer contacts six agents, and personally meets four of them. Two-third of the agents are actually discovered through online property search sites, according to the survey.

In a complete purchase cycle, a potential home buyer on an average visits 10 properties before finalizing the purchase. On an average 70% of the prospective properties are visited multiple times by the buyer.

Hyderabad and Bangalore residents are more decisive, and required seven and six property visits respectively in comparison to Delhi and Thiruvananthapuram residents, who made 11 and 15 visits respectively before purchasing a home.

Said Sachin Hajela, Group Account Director, Kantar TNS, “This study explores how online property avenues have increasingly become important in the property purchase journey, and in empowering a property seeker. The benefits of online in handholding a property-seeker in the initial journey of shortlisting a property, contacting a seller/ broker has resulted in online becoming the starting point for 80% of property seekers. With granular detailing of property emerging as a prime need, online has a huge potential to cater to this need, and further gain prominence in the property purchase journey”

About OLX- KANTAR TNS Study

The study included qualitative and quantitative research across 4 cities Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Trivandrum. A stratified sampling methodology was used to identify 600 sample size across the 4 cities. The sample identified was Male, in the age group of 30-55 years, belonging to SEC A households with an annual income greater than 8 lakhs and are regular internet users i.e. use internet on smartphone/Tablet/Laptop at-least once a week. The research was designed to accomplish the following objectives i.e. understanding the current experience/ usage behaviour of property buyers, understanding of buyers – expectations from property sites and uncovering category needs / need gaps.