By: Ravi Sinha
Track2Realty Exclusive: Analysts seem to agree with this premise that Ahmedabad has grown enormously over the past decade, due to ultra-progressive policies and intelligent development governance. The city is providing extraordinary and unprecedented returns on the real estate ROI, and has proven to be one of the most exciting investment destinations in India today. Still, it is not an investor driven market and end-users are very much active in the city market.
Manan Choksi, Regional Owner, RE/MAX, Gujarat says the prices are already at a lower side. There may be 10% more reduction, however the risks for waiting may lead to missing out on this window of investment opportunity. I feel buyers should not wait for more than six months to invest. According to him, due to some regulatory changes about Rs. 10,000 crore worth of land has been taken out of the market as its conversion to non agricultural land has been banned by the govt. So the real estate market has practically stagnated since last six months. A slow influx of end users is going to change the market and then the developers will come out the inventory they have built.
“Ahmedabad property market is going through regulatory changes. All new projects have been stalled as the plans are not approved by the municipal authorities. There are new FSI norms which need to be interpreted and hence there is no new inventory coming in the next 1 year in the market. Hence, resale market in Ahmedabad is going to pass through a boom and would be a good investment for a horizon of two years or more,” says Choksi.
What about the buyers’ psyche and expectations of a price crash borne out of a section of analysts who forecasted doomsday? Well it seems the buyers too have learnt to live with the reality that the prices are here to stay or go up and definitely they are not expecting any crash or correction. Such expectations in the last few months have only led to disappointments.
“I feel such reports have misled us for long and expectations of price correction has been the biggest bubble in the realty market and in the minds of the home buyers. Ahmedabad real estate has continually observed steady demand for properties. Home aspirers like me who waited for long have now learnt to shell out the right price in the right market. Hence, according to my perception price correction is not really the reality, and the greater concern now is if the projects are delivered on time,” says Deepika Shettigar, a prospective home buyer who works with a bank in Ahmedabad.
Analysts tracking the sector in the city market also maintain that buyers have played the wait and watch game for long, only to realise that price correction is a wishful thought. It is a good time to buy or invest in property in a location which is seeing huge infrastructural development especially for end-user and long-term investment.
If the investment horizon is more than three years, it is always a good time to invest in Ahmedabad residential properties as market eventually will go up due to its cyclical nature.
However, the only word of caution in Ahmedabad property market is that it is still not a market for speculation or early exit since the macro-economic indicators point to a stable & healthy yet gradual growth of capital value in the city’s property market. But then, no one seems to be complaining in Ahmedabad realty as of now.
