Outlook gloomy for auto, brightening for property: Survey

Mumbai: A consumer survey by foreign brokerage UBS India paints a gloomy picture for the Indian auto sector, but the sentiment is improving for the real estate sector, with property purchase intentions at a five-year high.

In the auto sector, the sentiment is muted, with buyers deferring purchases on lack of financing support from the non-bank finance companies, or NBFCs.

“For cars in particular, purchase decisions appear to be getting pushed out to beyond a two-year horizon. For two-wheelers, purchase intentions have improved sequentially, although spending intentions have not returned to the first half of 2018 levels. Some deferment is also seen,” UBS analysts said.

In the survey, only 6 per cent said they intend to make a purchase over the next six months. Similarly, only 14 per cent intend to purchase two-wheelers over the next six months.

Overall, the survey indicates purchase intentions are largely steady for both four-wheelers and two-wheelers, but are higher for property and gold jewellery.

In the real estate sector property purchase intentions have improved year-on-year to a five-year high with low expectations of a fall in prices and higher awareness of subsidy schemes.

In the survey, 17 per cent of survey respondents said they were planning to buy property over the next two years against 13 per cent a year ago. Property buying intentions have recovered from 12 per cent in 2016, to 15 per cent in 2017, 16 per cent in 2018 and 17 per cent in first half of 2019. This should also help property volume recover over 2019-20, UBS said.