Year-End Real Estate Review and Outlook for 2023

By Kaushal Agarwal - Chairman, The Guardians Real Estate Advisory

The surge in demand for housing in the Indian real estate sector despite the backdrop of uncertainty, looming global recession, and rising interest rates has given an indication that there is a genuine interest in housing and the momentum is expected to continue in 2023. The concept of owning a house, which gained importance in the post COVID-19 scenario, has only seen a surge in the sale of houses across the country in 2022, especially in Mumbai, which registered record sales. We have every reason to believe that the performance of realty in the New Year is going to be rock steady and robust, especially with the government also stepping in and taking initiatives that support and enhance the growth in the sector.

Real estate developers are also expanding their operations in non-metro cities in 2023. The most recent example is the announcement of the Mumbai 3.0 project by the Government of Maharashtra (GoM). The government is committed to developing Neral-Karjat, Panvel and the NAINA region in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) as part of the project.  In fact, numerous infrastructure projects in the city that were stuck due to the pandemic are expected to resume and pick up pace in the New Year. This will change the entire dynamics of the realty here.

2023 will also see the remote working model, which gave way to a hybrid work structure in 2022, change completely with the full-fledged return to the pre-pandemic structure of work from office (WFO). Therefore, CRE (commercial real estate), which has been on the rise last year, is expected to dominate with Grade-A offices in huge demand as big companies are seeking to expand their operations in the coming days.

One of the biggest game-changers in 2022 has been that of real estate’s re-emergence as the first choice for long-term investment gains; this spells exciting times for investors in 2023 as well.