When the entire country and most of the world went into a lockdown due to Covid-19 last year, many industries and sectors saw huge losses making it a whole disaster. But for the real estate market in Goa, it didn’t make any losses but instead helped the sector to gain more profits.
With Covid-19 still looking in the society and many offices allowing employees to work remotely, several big-city dwellers have begun acting on their dream plans of moving to Goa. Most of them are buying or renting a property near popular tourist destinations in Goa, like Anjuna and Vagator, giving a boost to the beach town’s Covid-hit real estate business.
The prospect of working from a place that is safe, short distances to travel, largely crowd-free, and affords a good quality of life is drawing people from other cities in the country to Goa. This has ultimately lead to the high demand for property in Goa. All types of property including studio apartments, villas, holiday homes, flat apartments, houses, in- gated communities are seeing a high surge of demand.
Those who had been working from home’ from Goa and continue to do so are now convinced that living and working out of Goa is practical and economical, thus making them purchase properties in Goa.
“End users in the lower middle class and the middle class are the worst hit in the category which includes businessmen as below the range of any property below Rs one crore is not doing well in the market. This has been happening ever since pre-pandemic. It has become worse post-pandemic. However, a lot of people, are buying plots and a lot of luxury sales are happening. Now, we have a problem that there is less land available in Goa,” said Amit Chopra, President of the Goa Association of Realtors (GAR).
Jagannath Desh Prabhudesai, former President of CREDAI said “Soon after the lockdown in March last year Goa had declared itself as a ‘green zone’ and that impression stays all over India. Hence people started to ‘migrate’ here to Goa. In fact, I too got some customers who sold off their property in north India and wanted to shift to a better habitat by staying on rental places as they rightly felt that Goa is safer. It is all online now and all transparent. I also learned that people want a quieter place that is why they want to settle in South Goa as there is no much boom on this side as opposed to North Goa. In fact, flats etc. are for the local market and when it stabilizes, it will pick up and there is no boom as such in the mid-segment. Yes, there is stagnation in this segment. Now, people who want to settle down in Goa, prefer high-end property as they have more purchasing power,” said Prabhudesai.
In contrast, real estate developers say people are largely interested in locales around Goa’s northern coast, such as Vagator, Siolim, Assagao, and the hinterlands of Goa.
While the preferences are diverse, the influx of people looking for short and long leases has pushed up rentals by about 5-7%. Rentals have also moved up by 10-15%.
While the pandemic has not yet completely disappeared from the scene and is creating havoc in other industries, Goa’s real estate market is really picking up. People from metropolitan cities are showing interest in buying a property in Goa, many are buying houses and putting them up for holiday rentals. The same people who used to invest in flats worth Rs 20 crore in Mumbai are now investing in grand villas at just Rs 4 crore-Rs 5 crores in Goa!.
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