As uncanny real estate trends go, this one stands out: since the onset of the pandemic, real estate developers across India are building fewer high-rise buildings. A report by property consultant Anarock states that only 614 of the 1,178 residential projects launched in 2021 (52 percent) were 10 floors or more.
The report notes that over 60 percent of all residential projects launched in 2020 (291 of 468 projects) were over 10 floors, while 2019 saw 63 percent (603 of 960 buildings) of newly launched residential buildings cross the mark.
NCR saw the maximum decline in the number of high rises. Of the 62 projects launched in 2021, only 39 were high-rise buildings. Compare this to 95 percent of new residential buildings launched as high-rise projects in 2019 and the shift becomes evident.
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Even Pune has seen a fall in its share of high-rise homes. Just last year, 92 percent of new residential buildings in Pune were high-rise projects. Today, that number is just 72 percent as just 170 of the 235 new residential buildings are 10 floors or above.
Chennai, not exactly known for vertical development has seen a fall too. Last year, 18 percent of all new projects were 10 floors or above; today that share is just 10 percent.
Anarock believes the reluctance to build high could have something to do with changing consumer preferences. "We are seeing a clear shift in homebuyer preferences towards independent floors in key NCR markets like Faridabad and Gurugram," said Anuj Puri, chairman, Anarock, "The trend in key Southern cities like Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad is towards plotted developments."
Interestingly, two big property markets, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and Bengaluru have bucked the trend, but only barely. High-rise buildings occupied 62 percent share of all new residential buildings in Mumbai last year, while this number was 69 percent in 2020 and 2019.
In Bengaluru, the minor share of high-rise buildings has merely alternated between 35 and 36 percent showing little or no signs of a change, as there is a strong preference for less-saturated housing communities and plotted developments.
However, preference for less saturated housing communities may not be the only reason developers are opting to cut down on the number of floors in their projects. "The new demand realities of the COVID-19 pandemic towards low-saturation housing projects aside, the completion timelines and capital requirements for smaller projects are much lower," Puri said.
(Edited by : Jomy Jos Pullokaran)
First Published: Feb 7, 2022 7:57 PM IST
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