Four essential lessons for Real Estate from the COVID-19 crisis

The Covid-19 crisis has taught us most important lessons on how to survive pandemics. Real Estate is the severely hit sector that needs to convert old methodologies into new digital modern technologies in future. 

The novel coronavirus outbreak has been declared a public health emergency of international concern by the WHO. So the nation-wide lockdown to curb the spread of the disease has stalled all businesses in India. This has also majorly impacted the real estate sector, which is among the top contributors to the nation’s economic growth. The projects have been halted ever since 1.3 billion people went under severe restrictions since March 24. 

Here are four essentials lessons for real estate to consider if such a crisis arises in the future.

Revive the functioning of businesses

Prior planning as to how to continue the business and subsequent recovery from the situations is must. In circumstances like this where it has potentially threat productivity and jeopardize the services of any company, it is very challenging to maintain continuity of services. Though many large corporations have operations to mitigate the crisis, in the case of COVID-19 those are impossible to implement. Therefore, the policy needs to be revisited and reinforced to ensure better preparedness in the future.

Dependency on office premises and resources

The current situation has taught many companies to reduce their dependency on the utilization of office premises and resources. This can be a bombshell for several companies to reconsider their plans and create case studies for space optimization. It will help to rationalize cost, mainly in times of turbulence. Now, every industry needs to renovate and rectify its inherent flaws in order to beat any crisis they would face in the future. Similarly, Indian real estate is adapting to a rapidly changing environment after realizing that COVID-19 warrant inimitable measures. Indian real estate sector including developers, home sellers, and homebuyers would have considered certain practices to deal with the novel coronavirus.    

Embracing new technologies

Since social distancing prohibited gatherings, virtual meetings have gained importance. If such practices continued, it will help lower the cost of operations. In the COVID-19 crisis, it has mainly benefitted to the companies who have already adapted to artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) as they are continuing the business trickling even with the disruptions. It is recommended to upgrade technology as it will help companies surge during such a crisis, as well as yield substantial profit in the long term. 

Performing risk management

All businesses now must seriously pertain to risk management policies and not just the financial sector. Preparedness and ability to mitigate any future disasters should be practiced mandatory; it has become a need of the hour. Certain steps need to be developed at the time of crisis to help safeguard and preserve business assets. Especially, real estate developers or builders should focus on risk management more effectively to ensure efficiency and profitability. The reason is that the realty industry involves the deployment of large volumes of stock and machinery, which requires heavy cost. Thus, their maintenance and availability are crucial to a business.  

For all of us, social distancing and self- isolation measures have led to adjust to a period of working from home. However, management teams must make sure they stabilize their business amid volatile capital markets. An extreme event like COVID-19 pandemic has taught us to be on the toe to tackle any future crisis, prepared with risk management policy, and most-importantly accelerate of creating a truly flexible, technology-enabled workforce for a distressing time like today. 

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are for informational purposes only based on industry reports and related news stories. Propertypistol does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of the information and shall not be held responsible for any action taken based on the published information.