Real Estate 2020 - Developers embracing the Difference

22 Jul, 2020

This year 2020 has been a year of consecutive upheavals. Nature, which has always been so favourable to mankind, suddenly turned hostile and unprecedented. We presume this to have some immediate and also some long term effects on Kolkata real estate industry.

Developers in Kolkata have always been very prompt to adopt anything new which adds value to a property. It’s great to notice how they are now embracing the change in requirement post pandemic and cyclone. Re-work in internal architecture, exterior finishing and building structure is now the need of the hour.

The pandemic has brought this conscience that a family should always be prepared for emergency situations in future too which unfortunately one hardly was. Customers are going to look for buildings which have larger common areas with more spacious lifts, lobbies, entry and exit points for easy movements. Even larger amenity rooms and halls will be preferred. Inside the flats, customers will look for that extra room, small or large, which is now everyone's need today in the family. Either the husband or wife has to work from home, or the child has to study from home or for that sake the family has to socialise from home - the role of a separate digitised room is going to be more important in future than even now.

Amongst the list of the basic amenities a few will make new entries. The demand of a business centre within the residential complex will come up where a resident can go and work on a desk with basic facilities. The supply of broadband connections to flats will come with the demand for higher speed of the internet becoming a necessity to work or study from home now. Instead of physical libraries customers will look for virtual libraries now. So, developers should plan accordingly.

The cyclone has also made everyone re-think the building exteriors in a new way. More focus to be given for safer properties resistant to cyclones with facade having good quality glass and windows. The placement of trees need to be thought again - whether near the boundary wall or away or may be even different kinds of trees all together.

Another major change is coming in the perspective towards offices and CBD areas. People will not want to travel for long to reach offices now. Congested areas will anyways not be preferred. So, developers should plan to bring offices around the outskirts of the city too wherefrom people heavily travel to the current CBD areas. Business now being digitised, the place of work is going to witness decentralisation. Developers can plan offices also around large residential complexes.

We have to accept the hard truth that we are consistently doing things against Nature and hardly doing anything to reverse the process. So builders need to stay prepared for more such natural calamities in future. We have seen how markets did not have any air-conditioning, planned parking spaces, entertainment zones etc. only a few years ago. Then we witnessed that evolution. Now is the time to witness and also to be a part of the next big evolution.

Tag

  • Express Blog