Luxury housing has received all the limelight in the Indian real estate market. Come 2018, however, affordable housing will take centre-stage driven by government initiatives like the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and the Housing For All agenda. Private companies and developers will focus their attention on more affordable housing projects (as previously compared to luxury and mid-segment housing) to meet their set targets.

Apart from residential real estate, the commercial segment will also witness massive growth. With the fast and ever-evolving work culture in India, regular office spaces will give way to more hybrid or co-working spaces. This, of course, is the result of India’s booming startup culture. Indian metro cities have been seeing a quick growth in co-working spaces. Going forward, this trend will slowly but steadily spread to Tier II and other cities. Developers and co-working operators will work in tandem, which will significantly benefit the real estate sector. This will create an upward tangent in cost-efficiency, productivity and employee retention.

One of the most significant reforms of recent times, RERA (Real Estate Regulation Act), will change the Indian real estate market. The act was passed to improve transparency and to make the sector more investor-friendly. Developers can no longer be lax when it comes to project completion, disclosure of all project-related information, changes in project plans without the knowledge of the buyer, etc. With RERA, developers who have been negatively affected by it will want to improve their credibility. This will most likely be done via consolidations and joint ventures with prominent players.