Millennials drive growth of realty in Chennai

A big chunk of prospective real estate buyers in Chennai, happens to be millennials – those born between the 80s and 90s. It’s is a sea change for the sector from the days when many buyers were all well-past their working ages, and young buyers were more or less drawn into purchases by their parents.

It appears that the need to buy the first home is a decision that is no longer being deferred until a few years before retirement. Several young professionals, a few years into their careers are now taking a call to own their homes.  Thanks to high-paying jobs and the availability of ample financing options such as housing loans, the age of buyers of a roperty among urban officegoers in the city has come down significantly. 

Talking about this evolution of the market, Dr R Kumar, Managing Director, Navin’s says, “As opposed to the trend about 20 years ago, when people in the ages of 45-50 constituted the bulk of customers in the realty sector, today the age limit is coming down in a big way. The IT boom is a major contributor to this phenomenon as it has put a lot of purchasing power in their hands. The aspirational need drives new employees to start planning out their lives well in advance, vis-à-vis, future family requirements.” 

According to real estate experts in the city, even the matrimonial market is being swayed by the property based decisions of young urban professionals.  Sanjay Chugh, Founder, Skylines Property Consultants, remarks, “It is quite common for marriage alliances these days to be forged on the basis of queries concerning the income of the prospective groom/bride. But what’s also become an area of interest is whether the groom/ bride owns a house of her own, and is not dependant on the parents for housing. It is being seen as an indicator of stability and future readiness in young people. In fact, many working women are looking at buying their first homes as a beneficial alternative to renting out a house.” Chugh reveals that as much as 60 per cent of the first time home buyers in Chennai fall in the category of millennials. 

The budget of this customer segment ranges anywhere between Rs 40 lakh and goes upward to Rs 1 crore. Among the most in-demand areas for homes in the lower to mid segment of this price bracket are Medavakkam, OMR (Perungudi to Sholinganallur), Porur and GST (Palavakkam, Chromepet, Tambaram.