Affordable housing prices set to rise in 6 months; work-from-home boosting demand: Niranjan Hiranandani

                India's economic indicators are pointing towards recovery with many states starting to ease restrictions. The manufacturing PMI has come in at 55.3 in July, witnessing a sharp jump after contracting to 48.1 in June. GST collections 
also rebounded to Rs 1.16 lakh crore in July, after a brief downturn due to the COVID second wave. Real estate sales too are looking up with property registrations in Mumbai at a 10-year high for July.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Niranjan Hiranandani, MD & Co-Founder of Hiranandani Group said that he expects to see consolidation and a price hike in real estate in six months from now.

"Steel, cement and metal prices have gone up, all the segments of inputs have gone up, labour costs have gone up, so you are definitely going to see a price rise soon or later. When you see a 2-2.5x price rise taking place in 
cement and steel, you are bound to see a price rise in the affordable housing segment as well as in the other segments in the next 6 months," he reasoned.

The work from home phenomenon due to the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the sector too with a large number of people who work from home wanting larger and better quality apartments. "The branded 
apartments are definitely getting higher sales today. So many of the listed companies will see much better sales in the near future than they have done in the past because there is a consolidation taking place in the marketplace. So 
you will see slowly but surely consolidation in the next 6 months beyond what we have seen in the past," Hiranandani said.

Hiranandani said property sales in Mumbai are increasing at an astounding pace. He added that property registration in Mumbai jumped to a 10-year high of over 9,000 plus deals. "The sales are increasing, property registration in 
Mumbai jumped to a 10-year high of over 9000 plus deals where stamp duty spillover has taken place. However, some of it could be because of the lower stamp duty paid in March 2021. But the overall position in terms of sales 
which have taken place in Mumbai Metropolitan Region is astounding," he said.

The Mumbai-based real estate player also highlighted that they have seen a lot of upturn for luxury segment apartments in the last 18 months.

Further, luxury housing has seen an upturn. Hiranandani says it was not the case in the last couple of years. "We were seeing a pickup in affordable housing especially because of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) scheme 
but now we are seeing a lot of upturn over the last 18 months in larger segment apartments - 2, 3, 4 bedrooms and even surprisingly in some 5 bedroom apartments being sold and this was never there before.
So a lot of changes are taking place and the GST collection report itself is an indication of things that are very positive. So I am looking at a positive recovery," he said.

On a nationwide basis too, housing has definitely taken an upward trend.

"I do see things likely to improve but there is a lot of fear because of third-wave expectations and what is going to be the result, will the workers continue to stay with us or not etc.," said Hiranandani. Shares of Oberoi Realty, Prestige 
Estate Projects, Sobha, Sunteck Realty, Indiabulls Real Estate and Godrej Properties jumped 4-10 percent lifting the Nifty Realty index over 5 percent during the day.

Source: CNBC 18