APP DELHI-NCR ORGANIZES WEBINAR TO DISCUSS  IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON REAL ESTATE

New Delhi: To discuss the potential ways to keep the businesses afloat amid COVID-19 crisis and spread awareness among the real estate fraternity, APP Delhi-NCR organized a webinar with the renowned Industry Experts. The webinar was moderated by Tarun Bhatia, Kshitij Nagpal & Gaganpal Singh from APP and the panellists that remotely attended the session included Ankur Dwivedi, Head Sales & Marketing North, Mahindra Lifespaces; Anupam Varshney, Vice President Sales & Marketing, Vatika; Ashish Jerath, Head of Sales, Trump Towers & COO, Tribeca Developers; Ashish Tandon, Vice President & Head Marketing & Sales & Adani Realty; Kulwant Khurana, President, Central Park; Kunal Behrani, Head Sales & Marketing, Unity Group; Rajat Jain, Head Sales & Marketing, Conscient, and Vivek Sachdeva, Head Marketing & Customer Support, Capitaland.
The webinar discussed some very important issues pertaining to the current scenario. It identified NAREDCO as one of the biggest platforms for networking, whether it is social, digital or natural. It was agreed upon that given the current situation of the country, mutual cooperation and network building is the way to go for the future. COVID-19 pandemic has hit every sector and every vertical and it has broken the supply chains as well. Since everyone is in the same boat, the need of the hour is for sellers, buyers and marketers to accept the new normal and be trustful & trustworthy along with becoming more reasonable and flexible. It was also pointed out that since the government is working towards the goal, "If there are lives, there is a world"; there has been a significant drop in the Reverse Repo Rate of the economy.
During the webinar, the need for transitioning to technology for survival was also emphasized as well. Not just the realty sector, other sectors have started leaning more on the technology as well to stay afloat during these tough times – and it’s a change that is surely going to happen – albeit at a slow pace.
Now that everyone is beginning to rely on technology more than ever to overcome the loss of physical networking, LinkedIn, has emerged as the best platform for virtual networking - especially for the B2B companies.
"The realty sector currently seems to be in a hazy state but the demand of non-luxury residential projects which are in a finished state will peak because saving the assets is on everyone’s priority list. Given the current scenario, there is a lack of trust among buyers and they are reluctant to invest in an ongoing project because they want to invest in something tangible. There is a flurry of people wanting to buy residential plots more than anything else as it is a great way to save and secure your funds to tangible assets. Hence, people are running towards their safe heavens – homes.
Once the lockdown lifts and everything starts getting back to normal, the projects which are currently under processing will be completed. This, in turn, is going to give a major boost to the companies which are into the manufacturing of raw materials. As the manufacturing of the raw materials will get a boost, the realty sector will get a boost as well.
There will, however, be a challenge of finding the labour, because most of the labourers have either been laid off or have themselves chose to return to their native villages. So, there is surely going to be a shortage of human resource at first. But with mutual cooperation and devising novel solutions, I believe we can get things back on track in due time,” said Mr Kshitij Nagpal, President, APP Delhi-NCR
During the webinar, it was also highlighted that the realtors in the commercial sector of the vertical are facing issues like falling of tenants and the delayed payment of rents, but the panellists maintained a positive outlook and agreed that by having open communication & devising innovative strategies, things will surely get better with time.