In charts: 67% of India’s rich will buy a luxury property in the next 2 years, says survey – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Sixty seven per cent of high net worth individuals (HNIs) are planning to buy a luxury property in the next two years in order to upgrade their lifestyle, revealed a survey conducted by India Sotheby’s International Realty.
The survey elicited responses from over 200 HNIs and UHNIs to gauge the mood of the luxury home buyer across India’s top 8 cities — Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, and Goa.
Within the choices of buying residential real estate, a city apartment in the range of Rs 10-25 crore topped the charts, with 34 per cent saying they would look to buy a bigger city-based apartment. On the other hand, more than 1/4th of the respondents (29 per cent) expressed their desire to acquire a holiday home in the Rs 5-10 crore price bracket. About 29 per cent of the respondents were even willing to spend more than Rs 10 crore for the right vacation home.
About 31 per cent of HNI’s also said the biggest motivation to buy real estate in the last 18 months was ‘a good investment opportunity’ while 46 per cent said the biggest reason for them to buy property in the pandemic years was a lifestyle upgrade.

Out of the 76 per cent who responded in the affirmative to buying real estate in 2022, 89 percent said they would look to buy Residential Real Estate vis-a-vis 11 per cent who opted for commercial real estate.
The survey was completed before the onset of the third wave of Omicron surge, but it clearly showed that the hybrid work model is here to stay. Almost, 65 percent do not see themselves going back to the physical office, all 5 days of the week. “This is a clear indication that the desire to upgrade homes will remain a big motivator in 2022,” the survey found.
The survey also revealed that 28 percent of the HNIs had gone back to the office – full time, prior to the third wave of COVID. Almost half of the respondents though, continue to be in a “hybrid” work mode, spending anywhere between 1-4 days working from home. Also, about 15 percent seem to have made a complete switch to “work from home” – which was negligible in India, pre-pandemic.
What kind of properties do the rich own?
The most widely owned type of property amongst the wealthy is a high-end apartment in Tier 1 cities, followed by independent city bungalows or independent homes/ farmhouse in the outskirts of a city.
Vacation homes, land and commercial real estate all vied with each other and were found in equal measure in the current real estate portfolio of HNIs, with a 5-6% share each.

How many have bought properties since the pandemic?
More than 1/4th of the high net-worth luxury home buyers did buy real estate in 18 months to December 2021. “Several fence sitters bought property with historic low home loan rates & government incentives. In Mumbai, the stamp duty full and partial waiver between September 2020 and March 2021 was a big factor. In Delhi a circle rate rebate of 20% brought several category A colonies, closer to the actual market prices, accelerating transactions,” said the report.
What were some of the biggest deals of 2021?
According to data collated by Zapkey some of the big deals of 2021 in top cities of India are:
Founder of DMART, Radhakrishna Damani, bought a Malabar Hill bungalow for Rs 1001 crore.
K Raheja Corp promoters shelled out Rs 427 crore for Raheja Artesia.
In Delhi, JK Papers Group purchased a Rs 253 crore bungalow at Prithviraj Road.
Rajesh and Ajay Mehra, founders of Jaguar Group spent Rs 235 crore for an independent villa in Westend Green Delhi.
Kris Gopalakrishnan’s Rs 76 crore purchase in Koramangala. Bengaluru was the highest value transaction in the IT City.
Sridhar Pinnapureddy bought the most expensive property in 2021 at Rs 48 crore, in Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad.