Corona has hit us really hard this time around. People and industries both! In this blog post, I am going to talk about the impact of covid on the local real estate market in Zirakpur and Mohali.
The real estate market in Mohali and Zirakpur has not been left untouched by the recent developments.
Real estate is a sensitive market anyway and the prevailing market sentiment ( positive or negative ) drives the business.
The numbers have dropped drastically
The visits to the projects have dropped by almost 80% on average. Smaller projects are even more badly hit than the bigger ones.
Big brands report that their visits a down by almost 80%.
For example, a project that used to have weekend visits (Saturdays and Sundays) of almost 40 to 50 people on average is now seeing about 8 to 12 visits on the weekends for the past two weeks.
Many sales offices are operating with half the strength on a rotating shift basis. Construction work is going on and it does not seem to be affected by the covid restrictions. It almost makes me wonder if covid is a rich man’s disease or if the poor have no other option but to brave it out!
Sales offices that I have visited during these times are taking precautions such as sanitizers mandatory masks and social distancing.
There are only a couple of projects in the area that have done well this past month (April) even during this covid time.
Both are ready to move proect.
The reason is that anyone who is looking for a ready-to-move property cannot wait for a long time so their buying decision has gone ahead as usual.
Another real estate sector that has not been adversely affected by this situation is the commercial sector.
Commercial investment has still going on because the savvy investor understands that this is a good time to invest and one can get a really good deal at this time.
The commercial segment in Zirakpur and Mohali has really picked up in the past two years. Airport Road Mohali has a lot of upcoming commercial inventory.
Anyone who believes that Mohali and Zirakpur as a city are going to prosper and expand in the coming years and has the money should in my opinion invest in a commercial property in the area.
However, having said that, one needs to be careful choosing a commercial project. I have written a post regarding commercial investment options in Zirakpur which should be helpful.
How to visit real estate projects during covid?
The customer visits are anyway very slow at this time so social distancing is not much of an issue but the threat of infection is real so I suggest the following ways to visit a real estate project.
My suggestion to anyone who really wants to go out and look at the properties at this time is to not go and sit inside the sales office.
Instead, spend the time on the actual apartment so that you are not restricted in an enclosed space.
Double masking is another practice that you absolutely have to practice while going out to see the apartments.
If you are reading this from outside Zirakpur or Mohali and cannot visit you can also try and arrange video calls with the builders.
Most builders are willing and more than happy to accommodate your request for a video call. I can help you set this video call up you can leave your details here and I will get back to you on this and we can arrange your video call to your builder very easily.
When people are having very important business meetings online real estate customers can surely have an initial meeting with the sales team over a video call.
YouTube videos are made in a controlled setting and everything is customized with proper lighting and whatnot.
My feeling is that a live video call is a much better option than a YouTube video and you can do both. A live video call is much more realistic than YouTube videos.
Is this a good time to buy property?
No one knows when the situation is going to be better but this is definitely a good time to buy real estate.
As I mentioned, sales and visits are down for every builder. You can expect good discounting during the covid times.
Once the covid-19 situation improves the builders are definitely not going to be very lenient with the discounting because the demand is definitely going to go up as was seen last year.
The demand shot up due to pent-up demand and as soon as the lockdown opened a lot of people started buying houses and the prices went up due to reasons which included higher demand.
What to expect in the coming days?
Just today Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Amrinder Singh ruled out the possibility of a complete lockdown in Punjab because of the fears that if a complete lockdown is announced the labor working in the state will go back and the economic activity will get hampered.
Thank god I am not in a position where my decision affects millions of lives and their livelihoods.
All of us should play our part in helping the government deal with the situation.
In The End
Coming back to the covid update thankfully Mohali and Zirakpur are not as badly affected as the rest of the country in terms of the number of cases and the overall mortality rate however it is one of the worst affected districts in Punjab.
I implore my friends working on different real estate projects in the Tri-City to be careful and get their vaccination shots as soon as possible. I know that almost all big builders have arranged vaccination shots for their employees on-site.
We have seen this situation last year and the market bounced back sharply after the lockdown.
It will do so again but what is important at the moment is to stay safe and healthy not just for us and our family’s sake but for the country’s sake.
