Lockdown due to coronavirus pandemic, hurts real estate sector

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Due to a nationwide lockdown, on-going construction activity has come to a grinding halt which will lead to a further delay in completion of on-going projects. The lockdown will translate into a vicious sequence of stalled construction, delay in project deliveries, delay in loan repayments by buyers, delay in debt servicing to banks and an overall slump in demand due to the unease over job losses and salary cuts. All these factors have marred the future sentiment score of stakeholders.

* Score>50: Optimism
* Score=50: Same/Neutral
* Score<_x0035_0: Pessimism_x003c__x0021_--EndFragment--> <: Pessimism

Current sentiment score had revived in the fourth quarter of 2019 after being in the pessimistic zone (below 50 mark) for two consecutive quarters. The revival was however short-lived, as the current sentiment score has dropped to 31 in Q1 2020.

The current and future sentiment scores have nosedived to the lowest levels in Q1 2020 in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. Not only have the current sentiments dipped across parameters, but the looming uncertainty due to the pandemic has adversely impacted stakeholder sentiments for the coming six months as well.

North and West Zones are the most impacted regions. Future sentiments of stakeholders for North nosedived to 28, the lowest across parameters in Q1 2020.

This crisis has retracted the end-user confidence to its lowest levels ever, which will push any kind of real estate purchase decisions to the distant future. In western region, the stakeholders are not expecting much on purchase and sales in real estate. Future expectations decreased to 34% only.

Similarly, future sentiment index for East has dropped to 39 in Q1 2020 after bouncing back to 63 in the preceding quarter.

The future sentiment score, which had bounced back in Q4 2019 after being in the pessimistic zone in the third quarter of 2019, has fallen to 39 in Q1 2020.

The developers' sentiments with regard to the sector had seen a boisterous revival (59) in the preceding quarter of Q4 2019 on the back of government interventions. However, due to the current pandemic, the developers' sentiments have dropped to the pessimistic zone for the coming six months.

Sentiments of the financial institutions also moved into pessimistic zone, with a score of 36. Lenders mirror global concerns on economy and real estate sector.