India is at a tipping point when it comes to adequate housing. The country is urbanising rapidly. According to 2011 census data, nearly a third of the population were urban dwellers (with millions living in inadequate housing conditions). By 2050, 900 million people are expected to be added to Indian cities. The housing shortage in urban India stood at 18.78 million households in 2012 (possibly a grossly underestimated figure).

Yet, residential new builds in urban India have been on a downward trajectory since the highs last seen in 2012-13. Sales have plummeted, and there’s plenty of unsold inventory. There was demonetisation late last year, followed by GST some months later – to add to the woes of the real estate sector.

Given the current scenario, we were keen to know from dealers of building products in India how they felt about the future of their business.

ValueNotes conducted a dipstick survey of dealers in India – of tiles, sanitary ware and bathroom fittings – to gauge their sentiment about the future of the building product sector. We asked them about the likely growth in the next year in the Indian economy, construction industry, home renovations, building products and in real estate.

Here are some of the findings of our dealer sentiment survey –

• Nearly 70% of the dealers saw stagnant or declining growth in the first half of 2017
• A majority expect growth post-GST implementation
• Growth in building products will be driven by both new constructions and home renovations
• Bathroom fittings segment is expected to see better growth

The results of the survey are available in our report titled Sentiment Analysis of Building Product Dealers in India.
To download a complimentary copy of the report, please follow this link.