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India’s coronavirus onslaught won’t diminish appeal of its commercial property
- The pandemic will take its toll, but has hit at a time when the property sector has become more mature and resilient following much-needed reforms
- The potential for growth in Asia’s third-largest economy, with its large stock of properties awaiting modernisation, remains huge
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India is not alone in having experienced a resurgence of the Covid-19 pandemic. But the ferocity and suddenness of the country’s second wave is incomparably worse than all the other major outbreaks the world has suffered.
A tidal wave of infections – on Saturday alone, the number of cases reached a record high of 401,993, or 45 per cent of all new cases around the world – has brought India’s health care system to the brink of collapse.
It has put millions of lives and livelihoods at risk and undermined the reputation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, which earlier this year boasted about “flattening the Covid-19 curve” and turning India into the world’s pharmacy.
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Hopes of a rapid V-shaped economic recovery have been dashed, while foreign investors have begun selling their holdings of Indian stocks and bonds.
Not only are there concerns that an intensification of the outbreak could radically change perceptions of India, such a catastrophe in such a large country has worldwide implications. It increases the risk of more contagious variants emerging and causes further disruption to vaccine supplies to the rest of the world.
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International community races to help India tackle worsening Covid-19 outbreak
International community races to help India tackle worsening Covid-19 outbreak
The resurgence of the virus comes just when leasing activity in India’s commercial property market, having slowed sharply last year, was expected to stage a recovery.
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