Real estate customers adopt ‘wait-and-see’ strategy amid COVID-19 fallout

Real estate customers adopt ‘wait-and-see’ strategy amid COVID-19 fallout

Reduced consumer confidence on the back of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has led to a decline in real estate sector sales figures. The decline comes as consumers have generally adopted a "wait and see“ strategy due to the ongoing global health crisis.

With most sectors reporting a decline in figures for the first quarter (Q1) of 2020, real estate companies have seen their sales targets for 2020 become increasingly difficult to achieve.

Abu Bakr Imam, Head of Research at Sigma Capital, believes that the pandemic has caused real estate company sales to be limited to residential units.

This excludes commercial sales or land sales, as these two latter segments are concluded in the event that an organisation wants to expand. Given the widespread and large-scale economic impacts of the coronavirus, this would be an unexpected scenario, Imam added.

Since the global implications of the coronavirus became truly apparent in March, many clients decided to postpone the decision to purchase new units. This had a knock-on effect on sales and deliveries of units, as customers preferred to stay at home rather than receive their contracted units. With customer interest and purchasing power depressed, as the economy took a hit, real estate