By Hiral Sheth Gandhi, Director – Marketing, Sheth Creators
Small ticket-size homes or micro homes are gaining acceptance in the Indian realty markets due to the speedy expansion of the city’s geographical boundaries and the rise of population in urban India. The pandemic-enforced realization about homeownership has been accountable to spur this revival. The millennial community in particular who has always laid emphasis on an upgraded lifestyle rather than prioritizing aspects like home investments are gradually turning towards cost-effective homes fitting well into their budget.
Realty developers across property markets are aligning their apartment configurations and supply with the budget ranges being dictated by the demand. These residencies with smaller configurations are making way for more launches by reducing average apartment size, thus bringing down the property valuation.
With existing players scaling up their plans, the segment has also witnessed luxury real estate developers with premium projects venturing into this segment. This trend of launching the right kind of supply at the appropriate price is becoming a game-changer for the real estate industry. With a sustained increase in property prices in the last couple of years, the affordability quotient of home buyers has been challenged. This situation tends to continue in-spite of facilitating government measures like low home loan interest rates and stamp duty and repo rate cut. With altered configurations, developers can enhance the efficiency by staying focussed on the consumer requisites. The demand for compact-sized homes is all set to turn the government’s vision of ‘Housing for All by 2022’ into reality.
Dynamics that have heightened the demand for micro homes:
Location of the property: With metropolitan cities expanding there has alongside been an increase in the establishment of civic and social infrastructure. Nonetheless, a majority of the population favour’s residing in the heart of the city, for various reasons, such as seamless connectivity, accessibility to social and cultural facilities and proximity to workplace and schools. With the cost of the property being a major factor in such locations, families tend to have a preference to capitalize in micro homes. Smaller unit dimensions also call for effective space management, which is the current real estate preference.
The upswing in nuclear clans: In the contemporary culture, nuclear families with an evolved decision making as far as home buying is concerned, seems to be the order of the day. The size of such families being small, the space prerequisite tends to become less as compared to a joint family. In addition to nuclear families, working singles, or retired seniors, are also probable buyers for micro or compact studio homes.
Smart Spacing in Homes: A larger share of today’s fast-paced generation prefers homes that are easy to maintain and clean. Fortunately, living contentedly is a possibility with smart optimization of space in a small home and beautifying the interior without missing out on making it contented by using ideas that make the most of the existing space. Besides getting rid of a couple of things, some smart space optimization ideas can turn out to be beneficial. In a small apartment, you will want to keep most of your belongings, but in a way that it doesn’t look cluttered. An apartment without some free space doesn’t look like a home, but a store. That’s why beautifying to also maximise the space and using practical and straightforward interior design ideas to enhance the available space is vital.
Luxury micro-homes on the rise: Luxury micro-housing, tend to provide for an all-out utilisation of available space, design acumen, and comfort. Buyers these days prefer high-quality compact units, with no compromise on the amenities, and hence are keen on opting for developments with all the lifestyle-centric facilities and good connectivity. Even for high-end residential investors, these boutique luxury flats have an appeal, due to its location, fiscal feasibility, and comfort.
It has been researched that more than half of the residential sales, over the past couple of years have come from the segment of homes with smaller ticket-size. The intervention of the government through incentives and SOPs benefitting the developers and buyers have proved to be a catalyst facilitating the right supply and demand. With expectations from the upcoming Union Budget 2021-2022 that the government must extend infrastructure status to the overall sector, will further boost low-cost housing.
While the inherent demand in this segment is virtually limitless, but it needs to be tapped intelligently to facilitate in making way for more mass home launches. The heightened demand in this segment is a clear indication that small size and the right price bode well for the country’s real estate segment.
