Nikhil Mawale.
From a civil engineering degree to an MBA in marketing, and from working with major developers like Kolte Patil to founding his own consulting firm in the shadow of the pandemic, Nikhil Mawale has spent eight years watching Pune's real estate market evolve in real time. As Co-Founder & CEO of PropertyDrone Realty, he has a front-row view of a city selling more homes than almost anywhere else in India - and of buyers who now research on ChatGPT before they ever speak to a human. He talks about the infrastructure racing to keep up, the micro-markets shifting under buyers' feet, and why he believes no algorithm can replace a consultant who has actually walked the property.
A Market Growing Steadily, War and All
Mawale, a B.E. Civil graduate with an MBA in marketing, spent his early career with major Pune developers before launching PropertyDrone Realty in 2020, right after the first wave of COVID. Six years on, the firm is "going strong ahead," and so, he says, is the city itself.
"Pune's market is growing steadily even after these war scenarios as well," he says. In the first half of 2026 alone - January to June - Pune sold 44,000 housing units, one of the highest tallies among India's major metros, growing at a compound annual growth rate of around 5%.
The most striking shift, he notes, is at the top of the market. A recent Pune housing report found that demand for homes priced at â¹2 crore and above has grown by more than 220% between 2022 and 2026 - far outpacing demand for affordable housing under â¹1 crore. Commercial real estate is moving just as fast, driven by Global Capability Centres (GCCs) drawn to Pune's climate, talent pool, and proximity to Mumbai. "If at the right price, if GCCs get the office spaces, then definitely we will see very excellent absorption rate," Mawale says.
Four large infrastructure projects are reshaping where that demand lands: the newly opened Pune-Mumbai Missing Link, the under-construction Pune Metro Line 3 (Hinjawadi Phase 3 to Pune Centre), the upcoming Purandar International Airport, and the city's Ring Road. Together, he says, they're pushing growth toward Pune West, Pune North, and Pune North East.
Reading the Micro-Markets
Pune East and Pune West, he explains, have held steady demand for over a decade on the back of the Hinjawadi and EON IT parks - the city's established IT growth corridors. But the market's real momentum in the last four to five years has shifted to Pune North, driven not by IT jobs but by affordability.
"The houses between 50 lakhs to 1 crore are more available and in a better position in Pune North area," Mawale says, pointing to locations like Ravet, Moshi, Chikhali, Chakan, Talawade, and Talegaon as where first-time and price-sensitive buyers are increasingly looking, as affordability gets squeezed in the more established corridors.
The ChatGPT Buyer
Perhaps the biggest change Mawale has watched unfold isn't in bricks and mortar, but in how buyers arrive at a decision. "Clients are doing more ChatGPT nowadays," he says. Where research once began and ended with Google and Meta ads, buyers now cross-check listings on generative AI platforms, watch channel-partner videos on YouTube and Instagram, and scroll LinkedIn - often trusting the AI's verdict more than a human's.
"I think you need to have 360-degree presence if you want to survive in this market," he says of the businesses now competing for that attention. But for buyers, more research doesn't necessarily mean better decisions. "People are blindly trusting all these platforms," he cautions, especially NRI buyers who take landing pages and ads at face value. "A lot of things which has been put on the internet on the social media is not absolutely true. They don't know the hidden things which are behind the property."
His advice isn't to abandon the research - it's to treat it as a first draft. A buyer might shortlist properties on Google, get an opinion from ChatGPT, and arrive at a favourite - but Mawale believes that shortlist should then go to someone who has physically walked the property, understands its negotiation history, and knows what's happening in the surrounding area. "After doing this research, they should come to us," he says. "Then there is some discussion that can happen, and we could come up with the right property for them."
The Mistakes Buyers Keep Making
The most common misstep, in Mawale's view, is skipping the expert altogether. "In any of the other markets - whether you are going to Dubai or the US - every market, they always consult an expert," he says. "But in Pune or Indian market overall, people believe more in searching on Google than directly visiting that property."
That gap shows up most starkly with NRI buyers, who sometimes purchase homes they have never seen, drawn in by a recognisable developer's name - without realising the project may sit in the outskirts of the city while carrying prices closer to those in central Pune. "They believe that this developer is coming and definitely this might be a very good location," he says, "and as they are not aware about the location, they buy a property without seeing it actually."
Leadership Gaps and Infrastructure Delays
Asked about the challenges ahead, Mawale doesn't point to demand - he points to delivery. With the passing of Maharashtra's late Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, who he credits with pushing Pune's infrastructure agenda, Mawale sees a leadership vacuum at a critical moment. "We need a strong leader for Pune if we have to drive the growth," he says.
Timelines are already slipping - Pune Metro Line 3, once expected to open in March, has been delayed by six to seven months - and he argues the city's road network hasn't kept pace with its population growth. "We need better infrastructure, faster infrastructure, and wider roads for Pune to grow," he says.
The opportunity side of the ledger, though, is substantial. GCCs and data centres are steadily setting up in Pune, and with three of the four major infrastructure projects still to be completed - alongside a planned bullet train route - Mawale expects sustained demand for commercial space and luxury housing in particular.
Scaling Beyond Pune
PropertyDrone Realty's own roadmap mirrors the trend Mawale is describing at a national level. Over the next five years, the firm plans to expand from Pune into Mumbai, followed by Hyderabad and Bangalore in FY 2027-28, and later into tier-2 cities including Nagpur and Bhopal. "These are the main cities where we are seeing the demand," he says, "and we see that these are the growth corridors for the future of India."
A Message for NRI Investors
Mawale's closing point is aimed squarely at Indians abroad. With the dollar at an all-time high against the rupee, he argues NRI buyers are in an unusually strong position to buy Indian property at what is effectively a discount in their earning currency. "This is the best time if somebody who is an NRI wants to invest in India," he says. "There is no better time than this."
For a market selling tens of thousands of homes every six months, Mawale's core argument is almost old-fashioned: research widely, but decide with someone who has stood inside the property. In a city being reshaped by metro lines, an international airport, and a wave of global capability centres, that human judgment, he believes, is the one thing no generative platform can fully replace.
