In Mumbai sales registrations for July 2011 are down 31% to 5,047 as against 6,500 in July 2010, pointing to the continuing downtrend, said real estate analysts for Prabhudas Lilladher. In their report, analysts said the slowdown was visible in the falling sales registration numbers.
Has Mumbai real estate reached to its saturation point? Not really, it is the city that grew highest globally from 2005 onwards. The meteoric rise of Mumbai’s residential prices has been known for some time. Now, a survey of 10 mega-cities across the world has found that India’s financial capital has registered the highest percentage leap in property prices since 2005.
The recent World Class Cities Index by London-based, listed real estate adviser Savills shows average property rates in Mumbai surged 154 per cent since December 2005. Besides Mumbai, only Shanghai and Singapore have triple digit percentage growth while New York at 7 per cent had the least increase over the same period.
Yolande Barnes, Head of Savills Residential Research, said that the extraordinary residential price growth, despite the 2008 downward correction in Mumbai, is unsustainable. Terming Mumbai’s prices “socially divisive” she said that exponential price rise is symptomatic of the high levels of wealth creation in the city.
“As is the way when cities come on to the world stage and adjust from being national capital to world class cities, house prices in Mumbai have become unaffordable for many ordinary people. There is a widespread feeling that Mumbai’s housing market is a bubble waiting to burst,” said Barnes.
