Premium and luxury homes demand surged as 28 per cent respondents now prefer homes priced between Rs 90 lakh–Rs 1.5 crore, compared to 18 per cent in pre-Covid period, according to an Anarock-FICCI survey.

Meanwhile, demand for affordable homes has nosedived since Covid-19, initially because this segment’s target clientele was financially impacted by the pandemic.

In the survey, at least 53 per cent homebuyers are dissatisfied with the currently available options in this vital segment across cities.

“Of the dissatisfied affordable home seekers polled in our survey, a whopping 92 per cent respondents identify project location as the biggest grouse, while 84 per cent state low construction quality and inferior design elements as major deterrents. About 68 per cent respondents find the available unit sizes too small to be attractive,” said Anuj Puri, Chairman, Anarock Group.

"Bigger homes continue to dominate buyer preferences despite spiralling prices in the last one year.

City-wise analysis indicates that the demand for 3BHKs is particularly high in Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi-NCR, and Bengaluru, where over 50 per cent respondents prefer it over other flat sizes.

Conversely, over 40 per cent participants in Kolkata, Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and Pune name 2BHKs as their preferred option, said Puri.

In terms of preferred stages of construction, the H1 2024 survey shows a significant trend reversal. The demand ratio of ready-to-move-in homes to new launches now stands at 20:25.

In H1 2020, the ready-to-move to new launches demand ratio was 46:18. One major reason for this shift is that most homebuyers favour projects by large and listed developers, who they are confident will deliver their homes on time, the report mentioned.