First-time homebuyers are increasingly younger: Sundaram Home MD

‘The proportion of homebuyers aged under 35 is going up as a proportion of the whole’

First-time home buyers are increasingly younger in age than earlier, said D. Lakshminarayanan, MD, Sundaram Home Finance.

“The proportion of homebuyers aged under 35 is going up as a proportion of the whole,” Mr. Lakshminarayanan said in an interview.

The other continuing trend was of a set of people buying second homes, “which, in a way, shows affluence in society and the rise in the standard of living,” he added.

“If a couple has two children, parents tend to want to leave behind at least one residence for each offspring. It’s an emotional decision, not so much one driven by arithmetic alone.”

Asked if the demand for homes and loans was not part of an extended playing out of pent-up demand following pandemic restrictions, he said, “A spike over a short period may have been attributed to pent-up demand, but not the numbers we have been seeing for over a year.”

“Calendar 2022 was a fantastic one for real estate as well as for home finance,” he said. “On the back of two pandemic years, and given that the period preceding that was also difficult for the real estate space, one could not have asked for more. In fact, we are pushing past pre-pandemic levels – so, genuine growth is happening. The current recovery has been driven by real end-users, not investors. For that reason, this is far more sustainable.”