Is the real estate market recovering?

Mumbai and Bangalore market and been quite steady with Bangalore showing promises of at least 20 percent return on investment, whatever be the conditions. What about the rest of the country. The picture in the last quarter in cities like Noida, Pune, Delhi and NCR region was not at all satisfactory with piles of unsold stock surmounting, the real estate firms were struggling to find a customer. In certain cities a price slash of 30 to 40 per cent could not attract potential buyers. One healthy indicator that the market watchers noted was the buyer’s enquiry started pouring in, in large numbers. The question was why the sales were slowing down in the real estate sector and even in the residential sector. The answer given by experts was that the buyers were not sure about the real estate market for their investment and the prices were high and was not up to the mark of the buyer’s assessment of affordability. The real estate sector of Gurgaon, Delhi and Mumbai feels that buyers are onlookers and is waiting for the prices to fall. The high interest rates was also a reason for poor buying, is what the market watcher opines. In most of the cities, the demand was not in proportion with the supply due to which we noticed slow sales. With already surmounting load of unsold stock the new launches in cities like Mumbai, Pune, New Delhi, NCR has gone down drastically to offload the pressure of back log. An interesting feature as pointed out by a real estate veteran of Pune, is instead of this bumpy demand supply disparity in the market, the prices of property did not do down due to which it was not able to attract buyers. On the other hand in cities like Noida, NCR, even a huge price cut could not attract buyers.

With the enquiries pouring in the last quarter but the sales slowing down, the last month showed a notable trend of a decrease in the time between the enquiry and the sales which indicates the increment of buyers’ sentiments which flashes a ray of hope in the minds of the firm owners. With so much of speculation and a stable government at the centre with clear intensions of bringing the economy back in to the track, the experts opine that the first half of the next financial year can be the beginning of good times for the real estate industry.