Consumer enthusiasm for mid and premium segment in housing market to continue: Vivek Rathi

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

«We still identify it as an indication of a robust market considering the market has maintained the scales that it achieved in the last year-year and a half. So on that account, yes, the growth rates would be expected to be lower compared to the past two years but the market is maintaining the high scales which is something to look forward to,» says Vivek Rathi, Knight Frank.Just wanted to begin by discussing the latest report that you have released. Does it give you any sort of indication that there is a bit of a plateauing of demand and FY24 is not going to be as stellar as FY23 was?Yes, very pertinent question.

Considering we are coming out of the pandemic experience of the last three years where after a complete shutdown during the pandemic where people were not able to move, we saw the housing market particularly growing by leaps and bounds. The growth rates in 2021 was almost 50% on sales in the top eight cities.

It came down to about 30-35% in 2022 and this year what we are expecting is similar levels of sales. We still identify it as an indication of a robust market considering the market has maintained the scales that it achieved in the last year-year and a half.

So on that account, yes, the growth rates would be expected to be lower compared to the past two years but the market is maintaining the high scales which is something to look forward to.The trend that we are watching out for is the fact that the premium, the luxury and that has been leading the market growth. Do you see that continuing this year as well or even the mid and affordable categories bouncing back sharply?Certainly the mid and the premium segment.