The reason is what you are probably not anticipating.

Covid brought in a new format of work from home (WFH), the world over. Since covid was a communicable virus, we were all restricted to stay in our homes. The businesses reimagined themselves and most of them were able to function effectively by aligning work force to work from home. Zoom, Google Meet, and various other online platforms were innovated and put to use to keep one connected not only with each other but also with office and colleagues.

The only hindrance was for people who were staying in 1-bedroom or 2-bedroom apartments as because of space crunch and lack of privacy, it was quite disturbing to focus on one’s core office task from home.  For those with children and parents living with them, the task was even more difficult. This is when one was made to believe that work from home was a reality for all times to come. This necessitated lifestyle changes and people decided to upgrade to large size apartments.

Now, historically any project that was launched majorly had 2- or 3-bedrooms apartments, whereas 4-bedroom apartments were perhaps 10 to 15% of the inventory that was launched. When this dire need of shifting to large 3-bedroom or 4-bedroom apartments arose, the builders were caught by surprise. So, post-covid, developers played with the sentiment of homebuyers and planned new launches with large size apartments mostly having luxury specifications.  This demand and supply gap created huge inflation in the market with prices going through the roof, as provision of large balconies by the builders made new launches 25-40% higher than the existing inventory. Investors too rushed in to make most of the opportunity with easy payment plans.  They could get handsome returns since offtake of such inventory was quick and turnaround time was low.

However, now as covid fears diminish and the world comes to its senses, we are going to see the real requirement of housing both in terms of absorption and size, especially in view of the rising culture of ‘one person, one family’ as observed by the Supreme Court of India. My take on this is that Gen Z, the generation to follow, is contemplating to be single or having live-in relationships. If at all they choose to marry, they don’t want children.

As the things stand, globally we will see years if not decade of inflation, with diminishing job opportunities. And in such an environment, sustenance will become a challenge.

Life in metros will become extremely expensive and maintaining large size apartments unaffordable. As such people will move to Tier2 & Tier3 cities and we can only hope and pray that sufficient opportunities are created there.

In these trying times, I feel large 1.5B/R (750-900 sq ft), 2.0 B/R (1050- 1200 sq ft) and 2.5 B/R (1350-1500 sq ft) apartments will be most suitable Inventory which does not exist today. People will go for spacious homes but with lesser number of bedrooms. These apartments will have to be in complexes which have efficient internet connection, good & hassle-free delivery system in view of growing importance of Q- Commerce in our daily lives, club houses with multiple guest rooms, business centre and work area.It will attract GenZ as this will bring down capital cost of buying an apartment and also fulfill  the need of today’s work force.

I suggest that the developers should do a good amount of research on this emerging trend that necessitates recalibration of apartment sizes in order   to capitalise on the next leg of opportunity. .