In an increasingly tough environment, developers are warming up to group housing portals. Sandesh Wadhwa, cofounder of group-buying portal groupbookings.in, said many people sitting on the fence have swung into action in the last three months. "There is more demand coming from NRIs for mid-sized housing projects in Gurgaon, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai," he said.
Sandeep Reddy, co-founder of Groffr.com, said the website has seen a healthy sales conversion rate in the last two months primarily driven by NRIs. "The mood among NRI investors is buoyant as they now need to spend fewer dollars or pounds for the same property. The sub-Rs 60 lakh properties are most in demand ," he added.
Vaibhav Sharma, assistant professor of finance at Winthrop University in South Carolina, has booked two flats in Gurgaon through groupbookings .in. "If I were to invest in the US, the property value would fetch me a negative return. It's a good time to enter the Indian real estate market, where I think I can expect at least 6% annualized returns in the residential space," he said.
Sharma's purchase decision was also driven by the favourable exchange rate. He bought the flats last September when the rupee was close to 50 to a dollar. "I also received a 10% discount by signing up on the portal. I didn't have to haggle or make several house hunting trips," Sharma added.