coronavirus

Importance of having a bigger home especially post Covid

Importance of having a bigger home especially post Covid

January 20, 2022 0 Coronavirus Real Estate Residential Properties

Covid 19 has brought an unprecedented cultural and humanitarian challenge. As it threatened to bring all activities to a standstill, most of the large companies acted swiftly and created a new protocol of working – WFH or Work from home. Organizations will be required to continue re-imagining the intersection of office and home to create safe, secure and enjoyable work and living spaces.

Following the lock-down, a majority of the workforce has been forced to work from home. Many people would have been forced to make quick changes in their homes, to accommodate this new lifestyle. However, others may have been faced with space constraints.

Consequently, the demand for larger homes may grow significantly in every city, along with the ticket size of these purchases. Thankfully, factors like record low home loan interest rates, stable property prices and easy availability of ready housing stock in India’s prime residential markets, could ensure that buyers do not have to postpone their home purchase because of monetary constraints.

Along with the work, the learning spaces also shifted to homes. The kids need noise free, private spaces to be able to attend to their online classes peacefully. This has been pushing a lot of families to stress as there is insufficient space available to accommodate this new requirement. This again results in a situation where people are forced to redesign their homes or to buy a bigger home with extra rooms.

For millennial, stepping out of their homes for entertainment or leisure, was an integral part of their daily lives. The absence of open spaces, such as a balcony or a courtyard, within the house was never an issue. Moreover, in space-constrained cities, people often covered the available open spaces, to make use of every inch of space. This is likely to change and even after the lock-down is lifted, people will seek open spaces to relax and rejuvenate. The lock-down will make people understand that open space is just as important as storage space.

Extended lock-down periods, gym closures and limits on time spent outdoors, has made many people feel the importance of exercise for one’s mental and physical health.

Many buyers are now seeking flexible space in the home to accommodate gym equipment and space to exercise. This could be allocating a spare bedroom to be turned into space for a home gym, or creating a dedicated space to accommodate working out at home.

The additional emphasis laid down during this period on keeping one healthy to improve his immunity has further highlighted this requirement. This generation anyway has been more focused on healthy lifestyle. It just adds up to the desire of buying a bigger space when looking for home right now.

It is no secret that the Pandemic has forced people to make new adjustments keeping in sync with the requirements of new ways of operation. Getting a larger home is top of the heap and it will be no surprise to see huge upswing in the demand of the larger homes as we go forward. Luckily the home prices have been at a low and home interest rates have been benign, which augurs well for customers as well as the Real estate developers.

What Changes we can see in Property Sales Amidst Coronavirus?

August 27, 2020 0 Coronavirus

Real estate is a big economic activity in India. In fact, real estate activity is a good measure of economic growth of any geography and therefore India being an economic growth engine, has a fast growing Real Estate sector. There have been a few years when Real Estate contributed to as high as 14-15% of India’s GDP. Though in last few years the industry has faced clear head-winds and is currently contributing only about 6-7% of GDP. Even at this level it is big and has an important place in life of many a people.

The Real Estate Industry has evolved in India over a period of a few years and with regulations like RERA in place, there is a method to how this business can be done. The sales efforts have been more transparent in recent years, which has made the selling more customer friendly. Also, entry of a few corporate and stock exchange listed players in the field has meant that a system driven approach to sales and marketing is being given preference to highly arbitrary practices earlier.  Also, the slowdown over last few years meant that there were fewer new launches and developers started selling products which were constructed and therefore customer could check these before buying. Also, the advent of newer technologies have meant that even when the customer is away from the construction site, he could understand how it would look like.

These changes had been coming at a slow pace, especially in smaller towns. However, with Covid-19, one could expect this to change very rapidly. On one hand, there will be concerns about repeated visits by a prospective customer to a construction site and hence, customer would like to short-list properties sitting at home. This would force companies to switch to latest available technologies of visualization. While earlier having a few videos of sample flat were considered to be par for course, it will change to developers developing interactive 3D models for buildings and units within this. The scale models, which were a very effective sales tool earlier, may lose the significance as customer is expected to visit a sales office only in the final stage. Also, the ability of a developer to be able to make a customer feel committed to buying, will depend less on sales talk and more on ability to convince him with specific details. This will happen because a customer surfing the internet about various projects will do a more thorough research as he will have the ability to keep flipping till he shortlists certain properties.

In summary, therefore, it is only fair to expect higher level of transparency in the sales calls and property related literature. The company website will be a very important tool to get customers connect and this will hopefully propel marketing teams to spend good time to inspect every single detail that is being put on website. The times of web-calls and effective objection handling on telesales are here as the time for site visits may be limited.

5 Tips for Working Well from Home

April 26, 2020 0 Coronavirus

Humanity is facing its toughest challenge in decades in the form of Corona virus. The pandemic has forced people to avoid travel and stay homes. However, most of the jobs today demand regular engagements and therefore, corporations are finding ways to maintain lockdown norms imposed by different countries and still work. The most workable option has been to work from home. However, most of us are not used to work from home and struggle regularly. Here are the five tips to help you manage yourself and your work better during these times-

Work from home,Lockdown,covid-19,coronavirus,make a space,keep in touch,organize your day

  1. Make a Space – If you find yourself working remotely, especially if for an extended period, the first thing you should do is create a landing spot. That doesn’t mean you always work in the same place, but it does mean that you have somewhere to go when you need to hunker down and get things done. Have a spot where you can feel organized, with all of the tools you need to get work done. 
    By the way, this shouldn’t be your dining table. That doesn’t mean you can’t get good work done there, but it does mean that you should have at least one place that is set apart just for work. Even if you like working in the middle of the chaos of life, there will come a time when you’ll be glad you have a place to go when you’re facing a deadline or need some time to think.

  2. Shut the Door – Speaking of having space, it should be one with a door that you can shut. Just like working in an office, remote working has plenty of interruptions–often from your family. Sometimes that can be great, but it’s a good idea to let everyone know that if the door is shut, it’s work time. That’s especially true if your work requires lots of video meetings or phone calls.

  3. Keep in Touch – When you aren’t working in physical proximity to your team, it takes a little creative thinking and an intentional effort to stay connected. Tools like Zoom, Slack, and MS teams make that relatively easy. The important thing is to make and have the tools in place so that you and your team know how you’re going to communicate.

      

  4. Organize Your Day – One of the challenges of working from home is that you’re far more responsible for managing your own workload. That means creating a plan each day. It helps if you create your plan a day in advance. It ensures you get up in the morning in time and go ahead with a plan rather than wondering what to do.

  5. Turn off the Noise – Finally, when you really have to get work done, it can help to turn off interruptions like notifications. Set your devices to “Do Not Disturb,” and schedule a time to check email and respond to important messages. That will help you stay focused, and not get sidetracked by continuous flow of WhatsApp messages about things that can wait until later.p

  • Work from Home

Now, a lot of this doesn’t remain possible in most of the houses. However, most of the homes in Paarth Arka and Aadyant residential developments have been designed with these requirements in mind. You can always find spaces that you can use to manage your office remotely.

5 Tips to Survive Covid 19 (corona) pandemic Covid19 (popularly known as Corona virus) is wreaking havoc ac

March 28, 2020 0 Coronavirus

Covid19 (popularly known as Corona virus) is wreaking havoc across the globe. After originating in China in December’2019, it has affected large parts of every continent. The scale and effect has been unprecedented in modern human history. It is a global challenge and global communities led by World Health Organisation are coming together to fight this. Billions of people are in coronavirus lockdown and a few lacs under quarantine world-wide. Everyone is anxious and feeling helpless, but there are a few things each one of us can do at individual level to help our communities, which can be a housing society or a large urban development. Let’s discuss top 5 of these:

  1. Maintain hand hygiene- It is so common for us to take things for granted in general. When we belong to an upper middle class community, we expect a certain level of hygiene at every surface we interact with. We tend not be careful about every surface that we come in close to. Now with the new findings of WHO regards Corona virus, it is known that this virus stays on various surfaces for a very long time. The only antidote to this is to wash hands every time you interact with a surface that could be infected. It is recommended to wash one’s hands for more than 20 seconds and in a way to ensure no part of the hand remains uncovered by soap. Soap is the simplest yet the most effective warrior against Corona virus and provides a safety net.

    2. covid19,coronavirus
    5 Tips to Survive Covid 19

  2. Social Distancing-This is a much used term right now. However, what it really means and why it should be followed is not clear to most. One primary way the Corona virus spreads and gains entry into our body is through tiny droplets, which are suspended in the air, every time someone coughs. In India, we generally don’t view the coughing very seriously, but that attitude needs to change. Probably in days to come, wearing a face mask will be the rule rather than the exception. Along with it, the need to maintain distance between two people helps avoid such infections from spreading. This may require us to re-plan all our social places like parks, restaurants and health clubs. Even within our housing society, we will need to work out solutions to maintain a safe distance between two individuals. The regular cleaning of surfaces will be mandatory and will go a long way to ensure all of us live healthy. Expressions of closeness like hugging, hand shakes and high-fives will have to be completely avoided for a long time.

  3. Exercising-The effect of this infection will manifest differently in everyone. One’s immunity level will also decide how quickly and effectively body can get rid of such infections. Improving one’s immunity, therefore, is a long term defence to remain healthy. An easy and long term plan to improve immunity is to indulge in a 30 min exercise regime everyday. If it is done in sunlight, it is even better, as the surfaces everywhere could have been infected. Also, the aerosol particles inside a gym, could infect one as the social distances can’t be maintained properly in enclosed areas. The other advantage one gets by going out and exercising is the mechanism of Vitamin D production in the body, which is essential for good immunity. However, please remember that these are not the times to indulge in very long sessions of exercising as this could tire the body which makes it more prone to any infection.

  4. Concern for Service Providers- We all know that Corona virus is highly contagious and therefore to ensure we stay protected from it, we need to ensure everyone around us is protected. It may entail ensuring that even the service providers in our housing society or the vendors in the community are properly educated about safe practices. In some cases, a few of them might not be able to buy the most basic personal protective equipments like mask. It will be a good gesture to help them with these supplies. Also, when you do this, you are protecting yourself.

  5. Care for Elders- Every society has people young and old living together. As the researches indicate, the old and the very young children are at the most risk of contracting and showing serious effects of this infection. We, therefore, need to be very careful about them. There may be old people staying around on their own and our taking care of them will go a long way in keeping the society infection-free. At times, they may also need our help in arranging for basic essentials for life. At times, there may be families in quarantine in a society and they may need moral and supplies support. In such cases, it will be important to not outcaste such families and support them in a safe and healthy way.

    6. These times may force us to adopt ways of living we have not known earlier. Staying at home is a winning strategy. It may look simple but will certainly affect our behaviour in long term. We need to support each other in the community and not display behaviour that is detrimental to anyone. It is pertinent here to mention that in this fight, we can all win together only. We can keep this out of our community only if we are together in it. The examples of other countries, including the one who have highly advanced health-care facilities have shown, that preventive steps to delay the spread of this is the only effective strategy. Therefore, pl follow the 5 tips shared above to survive this pandemic. This situation is unique and may force a lot of unpleasant decisions on us, please be courageous in facing those and survive.

Stay at Home is the Best Strategy when Coronavirus Attacks

March 27, 2020 0 Coronavirus

Times are a changing and with it are changing some closely held beliefs. Till yesterday, we all wanted some more time to stay at home and away from work, but did not get this opportunity. And today. Staying at home is the only option that we have. These are the days, when world is facing. Hobson’s choice, carry on commercial activities and face mass disruptions later or stop everything now and recover later. In normal circumstances, none of these will be a preferred choice but what we are facing is unprecedented.

social distancing coronavirus

As the medical science is recommending, staying at home is the only winning strategy when facing a highly infectious Corona virus. If you are living in a modern housing society, you should count yourself lucky. There are people whom you can see and talk to while keeping the safe distance. You have access to a lot of safe and sanitised spaces. The basic services are taken care of through specialised agencies and community is generally well aware of the steps to be taken for everyone to be safe. There are neighbours who are a support system for lonely or elderly. Children can still go out and play, though in a much more restrained manner. The sanitation in such places in not left to individual house owner’s preferences but is standardised with SOPs.

coronavirus lockdown
coronavirus lockdown

There will still be challenges not faced by us in past. The house helps will not be able to support you and the negative news around will be depressing. That’s where modern living spaces will have to evolve unique solutions. As we have seen world-wide, people have innovated ways to socially interact. There has been music, where everyone contributes or prayer sessions, where everyone participates from one’s own balcony. There will be a lot of learning opportunities in these modern social spaces, which are not possible in traditional mohalla setups. The challenge to keep oneself entertained and active during long periods of complete lockdown will be tough on most, however, a community of like minded people will make it a bit easier.

Stay at Home is the Best Strategy
Stay at Home is the Best Strategy

Various spaces provided in a housing society will provide a respite to residents, while keeping them safe. Well maintained and sanitised parks, entertainment zones and children play area will help us tide over this crisis and remain healthy. It will also offer opportunities to the residents with similar interests to come together while maintaining physical distance and create a new project. Catching up on the readings which one always wanted to do but could not due to busy schedule is a great tool. Celebrating occasions like birthdays or festivals, when everyone participates in their own unique way from their balconies is a safe and wonderful way to connect with each other. I am sure we will have some unique experiences when we come on the other side of Corona virus pandemic. During such times, however, it is normal to feel depressed and irritated at times. Engaging in activities with your family is the best route to avoid these concerns in a work from home situation.