'Shadow Cities' thunderbolt Metros in Virtual Residential Demand

As the country eased the lockdown across cities, the growth of virtual demand for residential property in smaller cities has grown almost three times in August 2020, compared to the same period in 2019, says a report by Housing.com titled ‘Time for Internal Globalisation: Small cities set the tone for revival’.

According to the report, there has been a significant increase in interest levels for both, buying and renting a home in the ‘Shadow Cities’. “The interest in the smaller cities has been gradually increasing and the share increased to 27% in the first half of 2020, as compared to 18% in the same period in 2019,” the report said.

“Cities such as Agra and Amritsar witnessed an impressive growth of more than 100% in the virtual residential demand over pre-COVID times, while cities of Vadodara, Ludhiana, Mangaluru, Chandigarh and Lucknow saw more than 80% growth in residential demand. This growth in smaller cities can be attributed to the imposed lockdown which has enforced the majority of the workforce in metro cities to move back to their homes in smaller cities,” the report added.

Speaking about the report, Dhruv Agarwala, CEO of the Elara Group said: “Though development in ‘Shadow Cities’ has moved at a snail pace, the current pandemic crisis, has brought structural changes in business continuity, which will notably accelerate the process of market penetration across sectors. Steered by the thrust on digitisation, and an aspirational cohort, Shadow Cities are exhibiting readiness for global brands across categories of fashion, luxury cars, jewellery and real estate, among many others.”

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