Around five in 10 people still trust their friends and family for primary advice to buy a house, rather than rely on information provided by realty brokers or realtors, a survey by Basic Home loan, a fintech company working towards automating home loans in India, has revealed.
The homebuyer’s survey was conducted to understand the buying behaviour and preferences of people amidst the pandemic, and took responses from 1,000+ participants. The survey gathered responses from people across the rural and urban cities in India, and captured data from 25 cities.
Despite the pandemic and a series of partial and complete lockdowns during the last 15 months or so, the housing sector has seen a steady increase in buying, as the interest rates on home loans touched an all-time historic low of less than 7 percent in India.
As per CRIF High Mark, the surge in home buying has been led by the smaller centres in India, as home loans in tier 2 and 3 centres grew by 10.9 percent and 13.3 percent respectively during the first nine months of FY21.
Commenting on the survey results, Atul Monga, Co-founder and CEO of BASIC Home Loan said, ”As a society, we have always been reluctant to pay for professional advice. We always tend to look for that first advice within family and friends, as we believe it’s most genuine, plus helps save up. The survey results reflect the same. However, the same is a myth and a perception that’s bound to break ground. A local real estate expert will always provide wider choices, carry sharper know-how on the minor details of a property, as well provide advantage of price negotiation skills.”
As per the survey, only 16 percent of the people trust brokers, while 17 percent of them go online to get the required information for buying a home. The survey also revealed the choices of respondents in terms of size of houses they prefer, as a majority, i.e. nearly 54 percent preferred a 3BHK apartment.
The new ‘Work from Home’ culture has also changed the preference of the buyers, in terms of what they wanted to do with an extra room in a house. While earlier people wanted an extra room or space to create a workout gym or nursery, now as many 45 percent of the participants preferred extra space to operate as an office workspace.
Founded in 2020, Basic Home Loan is a fintech company, developing an automated platform for home loan lending in India. It aims to provide consumers with end-to-end fulfillment, through technology for faster loan disbursements. The company's vision is to change the way Bharat (India) finances its affordable homes.
