All indications point to 2024 seeing a second peak in home sales during this election year, given the real estate laws in place and the strong demand from buyers.
Residential real estate and general elections seem to be tightly related. According to research, there are enough signs that 2024 may see another peak in housing sales and new launches, given the majority of real estate regulatory reforms being in place and strong demand from buyers.
Real estate developers have closed significant land acquisitions in the past year due to rising homebuyer demand, and the majority of their financial sheets are clean. It added that a lot of big developers with strong track records and balance sheets are expanding into new areas to strengthen their position.
Two election years, 2014 and 2019, saw new highs in housing sales. Sales in the top seven cities increased to almost 3.45 lakh units in 2014, while fresh launches reached an all-time high of almost 5.45 lakh units.
Similar to this, despite a pause in the residential real estate market between 2016 and 2019, house sales surged to over 2.61 lakh units in 2019, while new launches increased to roughly 2.37 lakh units.
Introduced in 2016 and 2017, significant structural changes like DeMo, RERA, and GST transformed the Wild West frontier market of Indian real estate into a more structured and controlled market.
Trends in home prices:
Looking at price trends during these election years, 2014 turns out to have been a better year than 2019. Average prices in the top 7 cities increased by more than 6% yearly in 2014 compared to the previous year, going from ₹4,895 per square foot in 2013 to ₹5,168 per square foot in 2014. In 2019, the average price increased by just 1% a year, from ₹5,551 per square foot in 2018 to ₹5,588 per square foot in 2019.
In India, the residential real estate market saw a significant downturn from 2016 to 2019. Following the significant market disruption caused by policy changes in 2016 and 2017, the NBFC crisis emerged following the IL&FS controversy in 2018. The residential real estate market was greatly unsettled by this.
COVID-19’s effects in 2020:
The earliest signs of recovery from the pandemic in early 2020 were momentarily muted starting in 2019. The housing market then, against all predictions, went into overdrive starting in 2021 and hasn’t stopped since.
What is the Indian housing market’s outlook for the next election year, 2024?
As things stand now, all signs currently favor the residential market in 2024, and the year can well create another peak in housing sales and new launches.
Following the release of the election dates, housing demand is still strong nationwide, with purchasers maintaining a high degree of optimism for the real estate market.