INTRODUCTION

The World Health Organization (WHO) stated that it was on track to declare a global public
health emergency and pandemic on about 11 March 2019, and businesses worldwide were
bracing for a severe effect. Due to the spread of the plague, trade, imports, and foreign exchange
rates have been profoundly disturbed in the world. According to early reports, the COVID-19
outbreak is expected to claim many lives. National GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is nearing its
troughs, and the world continues to be during the most devastating global recessions in history.
Due to the depressed labour market, developers were constrained, and consumers’ ability to buy
a property decreased as well, developers no longer had the potential to seek out contractors to
expand their company. The pandemic had a major impact on house prices and fresh land
releases. In the six months after this issue became public, demand for real estate increased.
Individuals are using some of their bargaining power, and the market favourable reaction
indicates that they expect the gain will offset the expense (Adams-Prassl et al., 2020).

According to Cushman & Wakefield (2021), India’s commercial real estate market is reasonably
priced in comparison with the city’s overall financial health and offers enough opportunities. The
pandemic impact on global commercial markets is also evident in farm animal production, as the
latest phenomenon has recently spread to animal farms. If only the short-term repercussions are
considered, leasing and cooperating with companies would be severely harmed. The commercial
real estate industry will eventually recover from the crisis, although it will be gradual. According
to estimates from the company’s primary sector, provider of commercial room in India, the
prevalence of this disease has delayed ventures; the industry is glutted, implying that projects are
in short supply, affecting demand and, therefore, costs and rental rates. The COVID-19
pandemic, which brought the globe to a halt in 2020, unsettled various sectors of the global
economy. Businesses have been severely affected, prices have fallen to new highs, and COVID-
19 has shaken the real estate market, which has been on a growth curve in recent years. Since 21
March 2020, nearly 1.3 billion people have been quarantined, effectively shutting down the
nation’s largest business. According to the ANAROCK H1 2020 PAN India Residential Market
report, the quarter with the greatest effect was Q2 2020, with the fewest launches since 2013.
This year, fresh launch supply decreased by 97 % relative to the same quarter last year and by 98
% compared to Q1 2020. Both residential and industrial real estate was impacted in terms of sale
and purchase. Due to a lack of materials and labour, the whole process has been slow and
unpredictable. Even though developers and builders have braced for delays, the revival in the
real estate market has been pushed out further. The real estate market rebound is mostly
contingent on the labour force. The employment situation does not seem to be encouraging. The
term “real estate purchase” refers to the acquisition, sale, and development of properties (both
residential and non-residential buildings). There are some advantages of real estate investing. For
one, it offers higher and more stable dividends, a high tangible value, and an investor may obtain
a periodic gain in the form of rent revenue, as well as tax benefits. The real estate sector provides
a sizable contribution to India’s GDP, accounting for approximately 6 %. By 2030, real estate in
India is expected to reach a market value of US$ 1 trillion, up from US$ 120 billion in 2017 and
contributing 13 % to the country’s GDP by 2025. Hungary tops the record with a 15.4 %
valuation growth rate, followed by Luxembourg at 11.4 % and Croatia at 10.4 %, respectively.
Slovakia was ranked fourth with a home evaluation score of 9.7 %, Latvia was ranked fifth (9
%), the Czech Republic was ranked sixth (8.7 %), China was ranked seventh (8.5 %), Jersey was

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ranked eighth (8.5 %), Mexico was ranked ninth (8.4 %), and Russia was ranked tenth (8.1 %).
Costs increased at a 3.7 % annual rate across 56 countries. It is worth noting that this is the
slowest rate of growth over six years. In September 2019, 91 % of all nations and regions
assessed enrolled in stagnant or optimistic development. The COVID-19 pandemic that began in
China has affected citizens worldwide. It has brought the market cycle and economic activity to a
stop, and the effects can be found in a wide variety of sectors. The Indian real estate market,
which was already suffering owing to policy reforms and the liquidity crisis, is now confronted
with another obstacle: the effect of the corona virus on the Indian economy and its implications
for the real estate industry. Indian land division is the second largest employer after agriculture,
and the pandemic impact would have an impact on those working in this industry (Del Giudice et
al., 2020; D’Lima et al., 2020).

The growth of the real estate industry has benefited India as a developing country. There is an
increasing rate in the property market over the years. However, due to Covid-19, the price of
housing properties began to drop and consumers still could not afford to buy a house during this
period as most of them are losing jobs. The sudden outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has
continued to carry a significant amount of uncertainty and has led to real estate industry issues.
The lockdown in India has resulted in a huge drop in the number of buyers and sellers as well as
narrowed property listings. Due to the negative effect of the pandemic on the economy, buying
behaviour of consumers has drastically changed. As can be seen in the first half-year of 2020,
fewer residential projects and low transactional operations were being observed in India.
Conversely, there are also buyers waiting for the right residential property to invest in. The real
estate market plays an essential role in the economic development of India as it can sustain growth
and support our economy. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a major effect on the economy and
financial market.

RATIONALE OF THE STUDY

The research has been done to show how real estate prices have impacted the buying behaviour
of consumer during Pandemic. Many studies have been done on the factors affecting consumer
buying behavior while taking decision for a home buying, but no studies till now have been
made specifically on economic housing preference or the housing preference based on pricing
which is a major and one of the important factor while taking decision of buying a home. This
paper is focusing on the impact of real estate prices on consumer buying behavior in South
Kolkata, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the pandemic, most individuals have lost their
jobs as well as having financial issues. The unemployment rate in India after the pandemic has
increased to almost 23%, the highest in the decade. Individuals do not have the ability for bank
loans to purchase a house as financial institutions are having strict requirements. Moreover, the
factors that affect consumers buying behaviour may differ due to the pandemic compared to
previous years. Many businesses in Kolkata are having a loss of around 40 to 80% and they are
unable to pay their employees as before. Therefore, they are forced to shut down and employees
have to bear with salary deductions. Construction companies in Kolkata tend to halt their
upcoming projects and focus on existing ones, leading to a short supply of the new project. It has
lead to a rise in the price of housing properties. In this study, housing prices will be taken into
consideration specifically and also how it has affected the real estate industry and the buying
behaviour of the consumers in South Kolkata will be represented.

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 LITERATURE REVIEW
1. James A. Graaskamp (2014) notes the real estate development process involves three major
groups – a consumer group, a production group and a public infrastructure group. Comments
that a major limitation shared by all groups is that each has a cash cycle enterprise which
must remain solvent to survive. Concludes that the best risk management device for the
producer group is through research so that the development product fits as closely as possible
the needs of the tenant or purchaser, the values of the politically active collective consumers
and the land use or the ethic of the society.
2. K. Saratbhai (2015) addresses how real estate has performed as an investment, the efficiency
of real estate markets, valuation issues, the pricing of contract contingencies, prices and price
setting and the agency business. Concludes that the list of research questions is growing and
there is a high level of both public and private sector interest in the answers that can be
provided.
3. W. Bhatt (2013) aims to focus on three points of the theory about property investment risks:
the management risk is not taken into account; the assumed regularity of the damping of the
specific risks with an increase in the number of investments; and the assumption that the
market risk is constant. There are three risk components within the risk profile instead of the
named two, namely: specific risk depends on special individual factors of the investments;
management risk reflects the span of control problem of the organization of the investor; and
systematic risk, depends on distinguishing local levels. The calculations do show the effect of
diversification, but not in all cases. It depends on the order in which assets associated with
different risks are added. Moreover, management and systematic risk work cumulative and
opposed to the diversifying power of the specific risk because both increase with increasing
portfolio size.
4. G.S. Sharma (2013) explores capital gains, income, and total returns in various property
markets in India. In a comparative study the nature of returns for different commercial and
residential properties is investigated. Hereby, total returns, income returns, and capital
growth are distinguished. The paper further presents an analysis of the risk-return
relationship of the different markets and investigates the interactions between property
markets, other local financial markets, and macroeconomic variables. Focusing on the risk-
return relationship of the different asset classes and countries, the Sharp ratio is used as a
risk-adjusted performance measure to investigate the European markets.
5. Rashmi Jaynim Sanchaniya (2021) found that the world economy seems to be experiencing
one of the most severe downturns in recent memory. The latest pandemic had had a
detrimental effect on the economies of several nations, including India. The International
Monetary Fund forecast India’s growth rate at 1.9% for fiscal year 2021, down from 5.8%
previously. This poses a significant challenge to the Indian economy. The resumption of
work was complicated by the workers’ surprising return to the employers from underground.
Developers struggled to locate enough job-creating jobs due to the labour market severe
constraints. Indian real estate which was still emerging from the implications of

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 demonetization and other changes, was jolted by this pandemic, with building development
halted and real estate transactions paused. The objectives of this research paper are to
conduct research on the Indian real estate market prior to the implementation of COVID-19,
to comprehend the consequence of COVID-19 and to gain an understanding of the threats
and opportunities facing mortgage holders, builders, and the real estate workforce and to
draw conclusions. This research article is focused on secondary sources of information. The
data for this article comes from numerous real estate surveys, including those from FICCI,
Knight Frank, the World Economic Forum and Anarock.
6. Yogesh Kumar and Utkal Khandelwal (2018) investigated to find the relative importance of
the various criteria that home buyers consider while evaluating the available alternatives.
This study also attempts to categorize these variables into factors. This is a descriptive
research in which non-disguised and structured questionnaire having closed-ended questions.
It was administered to collect data from the respondents. Total 250 respondents were selected
as the items in the questionnaire were 18. Out of 250 questionnaires, 30 were rejected on the
basis of completeness and legibility. The data collected through the questionnaire survey
were statistically analyzed with SPSS software. variables that were selected for the study are
Location, Proximity to amenities, Appearance, Interior, Well built, Locality, Ventilation,
Price range, availability of loan, Accessible garage, Fire resistant, Power supply, Water
supply, Maintenance cost, Developer’s reputation, Vaastu compliance, House number,
View from house.
7. Faishal Tanjung Maoludyo and Atik Aprianingsih (2015) conducted a study to know the
factors influencing consumer buying intention for housing unit in Depok. Data indicate that if
Depok has the lowest land prices then they can get maximum buyers. Input phase and the
phase of the process are the basis of the study. Input phase consists of marketing efforts by
companies and social state of the environment. Marketing efforts include marketing mix (4P)
and the social state of the environment includes influencing people in buying property. The
phase of the process consists of awareness needs, information search, and evaluation options.
Questionnaires haven designed by using Likert scale and nominal cross-sectional method.
Once the data is collected, it is analyzed by using descriptive analysis. Results indicate that
the personal decision is as important as the decision of the couple. They buy because of the
urgent decision to stay. The sources of information used are the newspapers, the Internet,
friends, and exhibition. And among many factors, the price factor is the most important
factor.
8. K Uma and Prof. Sameer Gujar (2020) conducted a study to gauge the impact of the ongoing
pandemic crisis on the residential housing sector in India. The major factors to be considered
are labour availability, revenue generation, supply- demand analysis, consumer behavior,
impact on the economy, change in the construction cost & completion of the project. The
data was chosen from both primary and secondary resources to understand the current
limitation and constraints. The covid-19 pandemic outbreak is expected to affect India’s
economy adversely. According to Knight frank India survey conducted on 16 th April,2020,
both the residential and commercial real estate sectors are expected to be hit hard in terms of
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 sales and revenue as per 50% of the respondents who filled the survey. Residential sales in
top seven cities was 45, 200 units as compared to 78, 510 units in 2019 during first six
months in 2020 when compared to previous year. The new launches also dropped by 42%
annually according to Anarock’s research during the first half of 2020 when compared to the
previous year. The residential housing sector which was already facing problems of low
demand will find it difficult to launch new projects & complete the ongoing housing projects
due to construction work being affected due to migrant workers returning to their
hometowns.
9. Inderpreet Singh (2018) conducted a study to evaluate the impact of branding in real estate
on customer decision making process. Indian real estate has been a mixed bag of growth and
decline in residential constructional zone. The population growth and migration from rural to
urban areas has considerably changed the outlook of realty in urban and its adjoining areas.
In this study, a non-probability type of sampling technique has been used. Keeping in mind
the aims, objectives and the fact that all the respondents for the study were educated,
structured questionnaire is used for data collection. The questionnaire consisted various
aspects like open ended, close ended, multiple choice etc. The study concluded that consumer
have become very much decision maker they took into consideration so many aspects like the
brand of the developer, price of the property, location of the property, future expectations of
the property. Income level of the buyer plays an important role in buying decision.
10. Pantri Heriyatia, Dewi Tamara, Natasya Ilkovicha Saimanc, Retno Kusuma Ningrum, Robi
Sugihartono Suriae (2021) conducted a study to examine the factors related to purchase
decision in buying a house in Jakarta during Covid -19 Pandemic that has now been lasted
for more than one year. The purchase decision of buying a house or property is still
considered important for young people. Feng shui factors are considered as one of the
important reasoning because the Chinese belief for the position and direction of the house
will impact the occupants. Another variable are brand reputation and financial aspects. The
sample consists of 112 of millennials that lived in Jakarta greater area. The focus on
millennials cohort because they are the driver in the workforce and hit by the pandemic
condition. There were 19 indicators; therefore the total minimum sample size is 95 people as
respondents. Data was collected by distributing offline and online questionnaires to the
respondents. This study conducted data analysis of reliability and validity test and for
hypotheses testing multiple regression analysis will be employed. SPSS Software and
analysis tool was utilized to analyze the data. It was found that feng shui belief is the only
variable that affected the buying decision from millennials during pandemic. It was found
that the location of the house seems irrelevant these days, due to easiness of transportation &
the higher possibility of work from home, not only during the pandemic, but also for the
future work policy.

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 RESEARCH GAP
There are no studies till now that have specifically explored the area of the impact of real
estate prices on consumer buying behavior both before and after the COVID-19 pandemic
started in 2020 and also there are no studies till now that has taken research area as South
Kolkata. However, some studies have examined the relationship between the possible factors
that would affect the buying behaviour of consumers on housing property. Even though there
is a high unemployment rate in India, individuals who are having excess cash would still
invest in housing properties as the price of a house has decreased during the pandemic. There
are only a few studies have been done on economic and cultural housing preference. The
rapid changes of economic factors would influence the local economy. Different ethnicity
has their specific preferences in choosing their housing properties. These have created a gap
between consumers and housing developers. By focusing on the issue housing prices,
housing developers will find it easier to satisfy the demand of consumers. This paper aims to
bridge the gap between housing developers and consumers.

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 REFERENCES
1. Graaskamp, J. (2014). “Fundamentals of Real Estate Development”, Journal of
Property Valuation and Investment, 10(3), 619 – 639.
2. Saratbhai, K. (2015). “Future Directions in Real Estate Research”, Journal of
Property Valuation and Investment, 11(4), 327 – 337.
3. Bhatt, W. (2013). "A different look on risks by property investments", Journal of
Indian Real Estate Research, 1(2), 151 – 161.
4. Sharma, G. (2013). "Risk and return in European property markets: an empirical
investigation", Journal of European Real Estate Research, 1(3), 235 – 253.
5. Sanchaniya, R. (2021). “The Effect of Covid-19 on the Real Estate Industry in India”,
Baltic Journal of Real Estate Economics and Construction Management, 9, 122-129,
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