Consumer & Market Trends in Real Estate

Real estate in India continues to be a favored destination globally for investors, developers and non-resident Indians (NRIs), driven largely by investor-friendly government policies and increasing globalization.

Being a good employment generation sector, real estate contributes effectively to India's gross domestic product (GDP). The foreign direct investment (FDI) in the sector is expected to be much better in the next 10 years from its current status. The real estate sector in India is witnessing rapid growth in the residential, commercial and industrial segments.

Real estate development, once restricted to bigger cities, have shown marked progress in smaller cities and towns owing to availability of banks loans, higher earnings and improved standard of living. The sector's progress is driven by factors such as rapid urbanization, a growing trend towards nuclear families, positive demographics, rural–urban migration, ever-developing infrastructure, higher income levels and housing demand. The real estate sector, with its growing investment opportunities, is expected to boost annual revenues to a great extent.

The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2013, as approved by the Union Cabinet is a pioneering initiative aimed at delivering a uniform regulatory environment to protect the consumer, help in quick verdicts of disputes and ensure systematic growth of the sector. The Bill will promote transparency, fair and ethical business practices, relating to transactions, through disclosure of project details and contractual obligations vis-à-vis the project and the buyer, promoting informed choice for the buyers. This will substantially reduce the power asymmetry prevalent in real estate transactions.

The Bill will infuse professionalism and promote planned development of the real estate sector through the promotional role of the Regulatory Authority. The Bill will ensure timely completion of projects, and prevent fund diversion. The Bill provides for a speedy and specialized adjudication mechanism to settle disputes between the promoter, buyer and real estate agents, thereby de-clogging the civil courts and consumer forums, from disputes in the real estate sector.


Another upcoming trend is namely the increasing focus of online property transactions. Traditionally in India, agents are the centre of real estate transactions. Involving face to face contact not only means a much more personal approach, it also reduces the risks of property scams. There is an involvement of the third party as a mediator, to take care of the intricacies. This position of an agent has been a distinctive feature of the real estate business model in India for a long time.

Recently, there has been a change to the role of an agent as middle man, with a number of online resources entrenching their position as the agents’ front window, listing hundreds and thousands of properties for sale and providing advice to buyers. Improved technology is increasing the popularity of virtual tours of properties, blogs with current information on the market and insights and use of social networks. With buying real estate being the biggest financial commitment for most consumers, it is hardly unexpected that home buyers are willing to use what the Internet has to offer to support their buying decisions. The impact of the Internet on the real estate profession should not be underestimated. Agents should utilize opportunities offered online to adapt in their business models and include the use of technology in their business success strategies.

Agents are already embracing the use of the Internet, dedicating a greater percentage of their marketing budgets to online initiatives. Despite the challenges the Internet has brought to the real estate profession, it is doubtful that it will replace agents. Indeed, expertise offered by professional real estate agents and their social networks to other professionals cannot be substituted by online resources. It is important to remember that new technology poses threats but at the same time delivers benefits. Agents need to adapt themselves to this changing consumerism, success lies ahead if they can be more transparent, fair, professional and educated for the transaction.

Real Estate Investment – Building Wealth - On the Side

These days we see people don’t give much importance to savings, they want to spend more than they earn. Although our predecessors, always told us the importance of saving and they used to be really careful and participative with that. One is the saving in the bank, and another which grows exponentially is with real estate.

I am not giving here any guidelines for savings but real estate if chosen with care, is building wealth side by side, you need not be full time on with it, but even with right market knowledge and guidance one can on parallel along with existing business or job can create valuable lifetime assets.

Another reason why creating real estate wealth is important, I have seen people working in a job, where they are absolutely despised with it. Each day is worse than the previous one, so it is in a situation like this that you spend all your free time devising a way to get out of that job. You just need to fell head-over-heels in love with real estate investing and trust me you will not have to look back ever, if you play your cards right. With right property portfolio, you shall have cash flow enough to pay your bills. On the other hand, even if you love your job and would never dream of quitting, still invest in real estate, but in a different way than the category above, for them its full time career, for you it is building assets for your life, post retirement.

Principle number one for investing is to relax about investing, and gain a little motivation. Whether you are a brand new investor and struggling over the hurdles of getting started, or you are a more advanced investor and just hitting the usual obstacles, it always helps to take a deep breath, exhale, and calm down. Now doing the first things first, how much you are ready to invest and how much credit you can get to invest?

Now check which side of the city is growing, where are the upcoming projects, so that there is a potential of exponential return on your investment. Where prices have already gone up, there the return is less; it reaches the stagnancy and saturation point faster. Now do the right amount of due diligence of the project, location and developer involved. Comparative market analysis shall help to check the right pricing. If all these steps are taken in righteous manner, you can avoid the majority of unexpected!

If you don’t know it on your own, ask how to do it. Trust me this this is tried and tested and it has been extremely helpful. If you ever want to do something, there is a way to do it. You just have to find it and not reinvent the wheel on your own. So don’t ask whether it’s possible or not, figure out how it can be done. There is a way. Ask the experts, talk to brokers/ consultants working in that particular region. Ask questions. I had so many questions in red ink when I started out that I dare you to think you can ask more than I did. Don’t hold back because you think it might be a stupid question!

The idea here is building up lasting wealth using real estate as the tool to get there. The point I am trying to make is it is possible to have a career in real estate investing without investing in real estate and it is possible to invest in real estate without having a career in it. But ultimate goal is building lasting wealth. All the Best!!

Set Yourself Apart in Real Estate Selling

As is the case with any kind of product selling, even in real estate, all it takes to succeed is a little common sense, some smart work and lots of hard work. For people who are ready to learn the ropes and get a hang of it eventually, property selling is a sure shot way to earn handsome returns. As a real estate selling professional, you will be able to set yourself apart through the proper use of real estate social media marketing. As far as marketing of your services goes, visibility is the key to sales and success. Ultimately you have to set yourself apart from other salesmen and how is that possible?

Did you ever wonder why some Salespeople get all the business? It seems like they know everything about the product, as well as mastery of the sales skills. Wouldn't it be great if we had a plan to accomplish that could ensure a conversion? Plan is YOU, yourself, we need to work only on our self and that is something which is in our control. Just think otherwise also what else is in our control?? You’ll need to distinguish yourself…YOU and what you stand for…before you'll see success in real estate selling.

Personal branding is now more important than ever in communities. People are buying you. If I don't like you, I'm not only NOT going to buy from you, but I am blocking you and telling all my friends what I think of you too. That's the power of social networking. We all talk, and word of mouth can be your best friend or your worst enemy. When we buy something for our self we tend to look for things that are a little different than what everyone else is buying. I may like the main idea behind a trending product, but generally I don't want to be just like everyone else. I'm weird that way. You're selling yourself and YOUR personality, so be different. Be liked, or be hated, but be the best you can be at either! Choose Who/What You Promote Wisely: Another old saying to remember is, you are who your friends are. Like it or not, who you associate with or the products you promote all affect the perception people have of you. The image I want to display is one of authenticity and professionalism. And by professionalism I mean knowing my stuff and calling things as they really are.

  You will never get people to really like you for who you are if you are never really YOU in front of them. Market yourself as authentic you. Like people. Smile. Care. Listen. Learn. Share. In the process you'll find that opportunity to promote your products but what people will remember is YOU. By the way, if you don't find fulfillment or happiness in what you do, you might as well go back to having a job which you love to do, specially sales is to fall in love with the product yourself first, to be happy selling it, enjoying it every minute. What makes you decide to buy from someone? What quality or perception did you pick up that made you say yes to that person? How can you adapt the same qualities into your own personal branding plan of action? Can you see where you can do things differently now? Please share your comments below.