Many buyers preferred villas outside the city centre due to the p Global pandemic.
HYDERABAD: Even as Hyderabad’s realty market bled in the initial days of the lockdown, high-end residential properties provided a silver lining. Right through the COVID-19-induced lockdown, while most buyers shied away from the property market, luxury villas – with price tags of between Rs 5 crore and Rs 12 crore – flew off the shelves in the city. Most of the buyers were a clutch of doctors, NRIs, businessmen, and senior executives.
Hyderabad sold about 100 premier units between April and June, while the overall residential sales dropped to a decadal low during this period – to a dismal 974 units, as per the latest market reports. In 2019, the city sold over 4,000 houses during the April to June period. While duplex villas dotting the city’s outskirts – Gopanpally, Narsingi, Gandipet – with price tags of Rs 5 crore to Rs 9 crore saw maximum traction, super-luxury apartments in the heart of Financial District too found many takers. The cost: 10 crores to 12 crores.
“I was on the lookout for a property for some time. With the pandemic, I realized it would be better to live a little away from the city. So, we zeroed in on this G+2 villa,” said a surgeon with a popular corporate hospital. The family will soon move into a Rs 6 crore customized-home in Narsingi – about 20 km away from the city center. The house is spread over 5,500 square feet. An NRI, based in the US, also invested in a Rs 9-crore property in Gopanpally along with eight others, last month. She plans to settle there once she moves back to India. “Each of these centrally air-conditioned villas has a private swimming pool, fully-equipped dry kitchen, and other top-end fixtures,” said Praveen Guniganti, dealing with the luxury project.
He added: “The response has been tremendous. We have three more deals in the pipeline.” ‘Increase in demand for larger homes’ Hyderabad realtor Sumanth Reddy, who is president of the National Association of Realtors, agrees there is an increase in demand for larger homes. “Buyers who can afford them, want their families to be safe and comfortable post the pandemic. Also, this segment (of buyers) is never driven by the current market sentiment.” Deluxe apartments between Rs 3 crore and Rs 5 crore, too did brisk business. Particularly those that are either ready-to-move or nearing completion. “Some 65 of the total 154 units we sold in June were high-end. That’s a great number, in such times of slowdown,” said D S Prasad, director, Aparna Constructions – a leading real estate firm of Hyderabad.
