Your Home Any Time Any Where

Q1. YHATAW is a unique brand name, please share your vision for this brand. What is the unique proposition YHATAW offers to its customers?

We believe that trust, transparency and ethics forge and nurture any long-standing relationships. YHATAW stands for Your Home Anytime, Anywhere. Providing end-to-end property solutions for home buyers, Yhataw’s guidance and support goes all the way through the very end. Our Vision behind this brand is to create a trustworthy search platform for home buyers, where they can search, get information & get connected within a few seconds to a consultant who can guide and help them in shortlisting their dream home at any time of the day, in any part of the city.

YHATAW is a RERA registered company and ensures we sell only RERA approved properties to our customers. Every customer is important to us, therefore a dedicated agent is assigned for each customer to ensure their hard-earned money is invested at the right place. A wide range of options are offered to customers within their budget, at the preferred location and in no time.

Q2. As a consultant, you are offering various services under one roof like Vaastu, Interiors, Finance, Asset management etc. What is the value proposition for buyers in this?

From the thought of buying a home to moving in and settling down at their new homes, they don’t have to ponder from one place to another, as we have created an umbrella of all the necessities which a new home buyer needs during their journey of moving into a new home.  It makes it quite easier for a buyer as he/she does not have to deal with multiple individuals for all his/her requirements like Home Loan Financing, Vastu Consultant. Interior Designer to Packers & Movers.

YHATAW offers free assistance to all its customer on connecting them with the trustworthy local vendors.

Q3. Pandemic has posed real challenges in Real Estate. As an entrepreneur, please share your view on the impact of pandemic on Real Estate on your business, both positive and negative.

Fortunately, Residential Real Estate has taken a great kick in the market and the response has been outstanding. The pandemic has really taught people that “you can work from home but can’t home at work”, and it has hit people really hard on owning spacious, bigger homes with a lot of amenities. People have started falling in love with their homes. In terms of negative, commercials have taken a big hit, as no one wants to move to a bigger office space.

Q4. What are the emerging trends in reality? Can you see any new trends?

Average demand per sq ft has gone up, as people are looking at bigger homes. The feeling of owning a home has really driven people up. We are meeting a lot of young home buyers. The essence of owning a home or an asset has become one of the top priorities for millennials. which is that the majority of our customers we are dealing with are in the age group of 27-34. it’s a very positive sign for the industry as the majority of our population lies in this age segment, which is why the new smart homes, small homes with quality living are trending and are one of the most preferred choices.  Quality Homes are becoming a top priority.

Q5. How has technology changed the marketing plans in Real Estate?

Online buying is the new game. From finding options to seeing pictures, to watching virtual tours (VR) of the preferred property – all can be done at fingertips,

Technology is a great tool in helping today’s customer understand the location, project details & project briefs. Today a customer can take an entire tour of the property while sitting at home on YouTube, can check reviews, understand location, which makes it easier when a customer visits the property physically.

Q6 Everyone is talking about Digital Marketing. How do you think it will impact the home buying process?

Smartphones have changed the way we live, the way we communicate. We are the second largest populations with 430 million users in the globe with smartphones. Average usage of a smartphone is almost 8 hrs a day. So, digital marketing is playing a very important role.

As you know, once you are out in the market as a buyer, there is an ocean of properties which can be explored by a new buyer. Digital marketing plays a key role in educating, sharing and proposing more options to a new buyer, which he/she could have not really known in person from any broker.  On the other hand, it’s really helping new brands to compete in the market with the big players, making it more approachable in a cost-friendly way to potential buyers.

Personally, it has a very strong impact on the home buying process, as today’s customers are becoming brand conscious and are looking to invest in brand names which are well renowned or they have heard/seen their ads/projects. Brands are now made online overnight and it really helps to build brand confidence for the customers.

TAKE IT FROM TORBIT

Towards Sustainable Real Estate Growth

Like other businesses, real estate was badly mauled by the Corona pandemic. But now with an ebbing pandemic and fast improving economy, real estate is making a swift recovery towards a sustainable growth path.

The current and future real estate sentiment index score is a testimony to rapid recovery and growth of the sector. The current sentiment index score rose to 63 which is the best ever after the dismal score of 35 in Q2 2021. The future sentiment index score saw substantial rise from 56 in Q2 to 72 in Q3, the highest ever in the history.

For the residential sector, Corona has proved to be a blessing in disguise as well, with growing demand for home ownership, High affordability on the back of static range bound home prices, lowest ever home loan rates, besides other factors are contributing to speedy recovery. What more, there is a consistent supply at the right price points. Developers are catering to what home buyers want and not dishing out developments of their own choice. All this is giving a big fillip to the sale of residential properties. This is clearly demonstrated as sales of housing units for 3 quarters this year have already exceeded the full year sales of 2020 by 5%. Leading consultancies expect the full year sales of 2021 to rise by 30-40 % over the last year. What is all the more encouraging is the trend of rising new launches which are expected to see a growth of 30% this year. The push to “Housing for All’ and significant growth in Co-living will be driving residential growth.

Post- covid, along with residential, the commercial office market is also seeing notable revival, with  net absorption up 48% to 5.86 m sq ft. in Q3, 2021.It surpassed Q1 figures by 12%, Office leasing’s have jumped over 2.5 times in the September quarter and office transactions improved and reached 83% of the 2019 quarterly average level. This clearly points to improved market sentiment and growing confidence among occupiers. They are increasingly renewing their office spaces starting April 2020. Post-covid, flexible space will be boosting office realty as its share in Hi FY22 has risen to 15%, up from 5% in 2016-17. Foreign investors are betting big on pre-leased, rent-yielding commercial properties, REITs and stocks of big branded developers. This is quite evident as nearly 50% of Grade A office realty is now institutional in terms of ownership. It is expected that next year, the share of the commercial office segment in total FDI in real estate will be more than 50%.

Besides office real estate, commercial retail real estate is also on the upswing. Around 4.5 m sq ft of new supply is planned for 2021, with tier 1 cities accounting for 90% of space.    The remarkable pick up by the alternate asset classes is another reason for optimism. According to industry estimates, commercial real estate business will see a steady increase in demand to 30-35 m sq ft per annum over the next 2 years.

In view of the rapid pace of urbanization every year, we need to construct 700-900 m sq mts of homes, malls and offices. It throws up a huge opportunity for private investment in the next 10 years. Due to structural reforms and liberalized FDI norms, foreign investment in real estate has already reached $1.35 billion, a 9-fold increase.  In H1 2021 $ 2.7 b in investments were made which is 53% of total assets created in 2020. In a new trend, there is a vast inflow of investments in proptech and alternate asset classes. Indian real estate is expected to garner FDI worth $2.5 b in 2022.

Clearly, real estate is on the cusp of a new growth cycle after witnessing 8 years of trough cycle, considering that real estate cycles in India are typically of 7-8 years period. One good thing that pandemic has done is to fast track the adoption of newer technologies and smart green spaces for sustainable real estate. We have also learnt to be much more adaptive and resilient. Further, all the demand in the last one year was end-user driven and demand drivers are intact, Also, with the recovery being broad based across segments, sustainable growth is likely to hold, despite challenges of cost-escalation in construction materials and likely future rise in interest costs.

As such in this backdrop, restructured and recalibrated real estate, with increasing adaptability and resilience through innovative business models, will chart a new growth path. Especially as the transformation happening across, is not cyclical and the current growth environment is likely to continue.

UPCOMING EVENTS 

* Economic Times Acetech-    18-21 November,2021,   Mumbai

* Smart City Digital Transformation & Innovation Forum- 24 November, 2021, Online

* India GRI 2021-    24-25 November,2021,     Mumbai

* EAI International Conference on Smart Governance for Sustainable Smart Cities,   24-26 November ,2021-   Online

* International Conference on Intelligent Energy Management in Smart Cities,    25-26 November, 2021,    Online

* Festival of Architecture & Interior Designing,    29-30 November,2021-    Mumbai