Real Estate

Now at least there is little cheer for real estate developers because of just concluded festival season, and all credit goes to the lukewarm response of end users and investors. Apart from better property price now key markets such as; Delhi, NCR and Mumbai are witnessing positive response from buyers.

This festive season, which was just ended and was between Navratri and Diwali, accounted more than 60 per cent of all planned property purchase decisions and it was also bulk sales opportunity for real estate developers. However; to attract property buyers most of the real estate developers were offering freebies as well as heavy discounts. We all know that from last three years real estate market was sluggish for developers because most of the buyers were holding their property purchase decision as they were hoping for better price. As per the reports of 99acres.com, in Mumbai the price of property in terms of per square foot saw a insignificant rise between the period of second and third quarter of 2015 (April-June quarter to July-September quarter). However; the rental for commercial property have increased from the September quarter again after little rise in January-March 2015.

As per the statement of Narasimha Jayakumar, Chief Business Officer of 99acres.com, “Currently, real estate market is filled with lucrative offers, heavy discounts and easy payment schemes due to high level of unsold inventory which resulted in buyers to adopt a wait-and-watch approach. Samantak Das, Chief Economist and National Director of Knight Frank India stated that “Stakeholders which are from the supply-side believe that in present situation is much worse in comparison of what it was six month ago. In real estate market stakeholders are pessimistic due to heavy demand in residential sector and because of that they are not forcing for any kind of recovery in next six month. Whereas; the main optimism about the future was driven by the commercial spaces because it is expected that rental value will increases due to robust limited supply and leasing volumes of property”. Apart from that some of the real estate watchers are saying that in eight major cities of country real estate market has been improved by 17 per cent from 57.8 msf (million square feet) in the second quarter of 2015 in comparison of last quarter. According to Pankaj Kapoor, MD, Liases Foras, “A decline in commodity prices is favoring the real estate developers because it bringing down the cost of construction and correcting the property prices”.

CRISIL Report:

CRISIL report stated that demand revival is expected to be marginal and due to that price will also increase. CRISIL analyze the top 25 realtors of country while comparing the 95 per cent of the real estate market’s capitalization to show that still there is debt obligations of Rs. 30,000 crore with high refinancing risk. However; it is expected that demand of commercial and residential properties will be tepid over the medium term. According to Sushmita Majumdar, Crisil Director, “These 25 real estate developers are accounted for more than 50 per cent bank lending in real estate sector and most of them are facing high refinancing risk in the areas like NCR. However; with net exposure of banks it is expected that it will decrease by 5 per cent for the first time in this fiscal year, whereas; banks were used to meet more than 90 per cent of the requirements for real estate developers till last year due to increasing proportion and funding gap. Sale ability of real estate projects has also been declining, especially in North region states.

Festive season offers

If we will look the business of real estate market at the time of festive season, so we will find that developers and the consultants are on the same side because they are accepting that it will continues to go through a slow time. There are many real estate developers in country which have strong financial support and they tend to challenge or complete the convincing progress of real estate market with their under-construction projects. Unfortunately fact this has been overly hyped by the media and real estate developers that they have strong financial background and they are able to complete their projects on time. But still there is drop in the overall confidence of end buyers because they are worried that if they will commit their money into properties which will not be delivered on time, so it could be problem for them.

Price Correction in Projects:

In last one year, the prices of property in Mumbai has been increased by 3.7 per cent, in Chennai its increased by 15 per cent, but in Delhi or NCR no change recorded in the price of property. All this rise represents the more or less stable scenario and it is expected that it will continue for another 2 or 3 quarters as there are many fence-sitting buyers, who are waiting for the time when real estate prices get correct. But according to real estate experts price correction will be location specific as well as developer and will happen only if there will be nothing to attract the buyers. There are few cities where demand is still sufficient and prices are more or less affordable and in those cities there will be no price correction. Apart from that the regions where people looking for more affordable property certainly price correction will happen in those areas. However; there are much activity to make the real estate market more affordable because developers are actively re-configuring their projects as per market conditions in process to save the cost and pass the benefit to buyers. Much number of real estate projects are about to launch and they all have been at lower rates than those of earlier projects launched in the same locations in such category projects.

Economical Scenario:

In present, economy has not shown any type of perk for which real estate developers are waiting. However; market has definitely improved in comparison of last year. But market is still improving and recently, RBI as cut the interest rates to help the sentiment of buyers and it is expected that it will be factor to drive more sales in real estate market. With the cut in interest rate, the RBI has sent the signal to the real estate market that inflation is under control and buyers and developers can be more confident about economic growth. However; these kinds of signals are positive for buyers and developers as well. If you will show the actual pertinence on property purchase, so it could draw big impact on the savings because impact may not be very significant, in expensive regions such as; MMR, NCR, Delhi and more. If property prices will be expensive in any case, then marginal reduction in the cost of borrowing will not make any big impact. However; the reduction in interest rates will draw a bigger impact on the buying behavior in less expensive markets such as; peripheral locations of tier I and tier II cities.

NRI Investment:

If will take a step towards the domestic real estate consumption and analyze the demand and supply ratio in metro cities so you will understand that outlook looks very upbeat. In present, there are many non-resident Indians (NRIs) who are extremely active while investing in Indian real estate market. In India, NRIs are among top five investor communities who are investing in countries property sector. Apart from that there is natural affinity to India that NRI with high intrinsic value prefer to buy property in India than buying property anywhere else in world. However; sometimes due to weaker rupee value NRIs prefer to invest in India.

This festive season it is expected that buyers will see the mixed bag, but still question remains same, is it a good time to buy? Definitely yes, for end buyers because they have never been more spoiled for choice with bargaining power and lower interest rates. There are many real estate developers who are offering hard discounts registration charges and waive on stamp duty, VAT service tax and on other services such as; floor rise premium, free parking space and more. This festive season is an ideal time to make the best deal of your life and turned your dream home into a reality.

Housing sell will rise – festive season.

This Dewali, residential property sales may rise up to 15 per cent due to various offers and discounts by real estate developers as there are many real estate developers who are offering 15 to 20 per cent discount through various means. According to real estate experts, this festive season can holds out the hope of Indian real estate market as in major markets the demand from end users are increasing. Experts are estimating the growth of up to 15 per cent and more in residential property sales in comparison of previous year.

According to Chief Executive of one of the Mumbai-based real estate company, “From past one year there was no major price appreciation in real estate market, but this time real estate developers are offering 15 to 20 per cent discounts with an aim to make the net gain of 25 per cent in prices for buyers.” However; price reduction seems to be the most important primary reason for the consumer pull. In comparison of last year, growth in sales should be between 15 to 20 per cent, however; it also depends on the market and it is showing positive curve towards growth, as per the statement of experts, “It’s not time when we should expect the high growth number in comparison of previous boom. But still it’s expected that consecutive years of growth will help the market to recover from deep down phase. And due to that this year we are expecting good numbers”.

As per the statement of Sanjaya Gupta, MD of PNB Housing Finance, “Hyderabad, Pune, Bengaluru and the suburbs of Mumbai had seen increased activity in last few years. Last week were surprised to hear that transactions in south Delhi was high with ten high-end floors being sold. We can say that its harbinger of better sentiment”. Apart from new launches dwindling in major cities such as; Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Bengaluru, Delhi and NCR expecting are high time because most of the real estate developers focusing on clearing inventory with ready-to-move in houses in next 6 to 12 month. It will improve the confidence of buyers or end users accustomed to seeing delivery commitments being flouted. According to PropEquity, a real estate consultancy, the number of new launches in MMR, Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR has come down by over 61 per cent with 87,298 dwelling units during January to September from 227,211 in the same period of 2012.

According to statement of Pankaj Kapoor, MD of Liases Foras, “There would be a significant improvement in sales for this festive season because interest rates had come down and price had not gone up so much and developers are also offering the discounts”. The more he added that over the year’s income of working couples have raised by 10 to 15 per cent, which means affordability has improved in most markets such as; Delhi, Mumbai and NCR. In real estate market the inventory level for first quarter of 2015-2016 was rose by 24 per cent to 41 months in all major eight cities. However; NCR had the inventory of 68 months, MMR had the inventory of 45 months, and Bangalore had the inventory of 30 months, as per the reports of Liases Foras. An efficient housing market maintains 8-12 months of inventory.

It’s clear that Indian realty market has been hit economic slowdown, financial constraints of developers and low sales in last two years. According to Ashutosh Limaye, National Director, Research at JLL India, “This year will be better than the last year”. The plus point in this season is the price and it is attractive for buyers and end users. The more he added that still there is scope for negotiation. The festival season is started from October and it will continue till December, it is expected that 30-40 per cent of total house sales but in last two years very little activity has been recorded during the season.

Image Credits : DNA

Festival season is considered auspicious for real estate purchase and therefore developers gear up for boosting their sales. In a research report by JLL India, it was noted by its Chairman & Country Head Anuj Puri that traditionally real estate sales increased by up to 25-30 per cent during the festive season. However, this year it is anticipated that sales may not increase more than 15-20 per cent as the sentiment is still somewhat subdued and there is an affordability gap in larger cities.”

The real estate market, especially residential segment, has been experiencing a slowdown for last 2-3 years, leading to sluggish sales and long delays in the completion of projects.

JLL said that the property market is rich with options for prospective buyers with developers offering discounts in almost all the projects, particularly those which are ready-to-move-in. JLL also advised buyers to cautiously examine the offers and freebies to ascertain their true contribution in terms of the overall value of the property and the deal.

Puri added that buyers may perhaps consider the offers wherein stamp duty and registration fee is waved off, as this translates into an actual saving. He further stated that to improve the demand for housing, the government needs to review the taxes and duties that affect the pricing of any project. The process of granting approvals also requires swiftness to reduce the time taken from conception to actual delivery of homes.