Authors

• K.C. Smitha, Centre for Research in Social Sciences and Education (CeRSSE), School of Humanities & Social Sciences, Jain University, Bengaluru, Karnataka

The study captures the twin process of urban development and real estate in India as inextricably linked process affecting the urban governance and management of resources and spatial planning. The aim here is to examine the possible implications of COVID-19 pandemic and the process of recovery and revival of real estate sector in India. Meanwhile, the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic basically a global phenomenon and subsequent lockdown in 2020 had a devastating impact on society, economy alike and the real estate in particular. Both economist and the policy analysts were grappling to analyse the implications and fathom the future. Distinctive pattern of work, work from home (WFH) mandates, creation of new office space and study rooms, social precautions and physical distancing drastically impacted how we interact, and socialise with others. All these practically changed the way people interact and inhabit physical space creating unprecedented crisis for the real estate industry. Especially in India, since two years –due to the disruption in supply chain, real estate was thrown into disarray, low budget, scarcity of labour, and halted construction activities (Bhowmick 2022). The study therefore, based on the thematic analysis will discuss the characteristics of the India’s real estate market and analyse the situation during the pandemic period and subsequent post-pandemic changes those wrought by the new policies, structural changes in the employment, urban development projects and planning processes impacting the real estate sector.