By: Ravi Sinha
Track2Realty Exclusive: The best part is that the banks are now a party to revive the property drive in the city. They are also hosting property exhibitions, introducing combo products that offer further interest rate reduction on a car loan if a customer has already taken a home loan and are sugar coating home loan products, besides cutting interest rates and waiving processing fees to pep up demand for home loans.
Several banks such as Axis Bank, Central Bank of India and Corporation Bank are organising property exhibitions to sell more home loans, while a host of banks have launched combo offers where a home loan customer gets an additional 0.25-0.5 per cent interest rate reduction on an auto loan.
Diipesh Bhagtani, Executive Director, Jaycee Homes says the home buyer today is well informed and knows what to expect from a developer. Since prices are heading north and are unlikely to come down, home buyers are making informed decisions to buy now rather than wait to buy later at a higher price.
“Developers too are flexible and are providing flexibility in payment terms to home buyers. Therefore, I feel it is an equal opportunity market, with benefits to both the buyer and the developer community. The expo provides a great chance for home buyers to take advantage and buy their dream homes. Special rates are being offered by some developers for this exhibition only. The new development rules have been welcomed by buyers as they bring in more transparency in deals. Developer’s feel that the policies are one sided and need to be relooked at. Developers too welcome transparency as well as it takes care of a lot of irregularities and future ambiguity,” says Bhagtani.
The new development rules ensure that there will be an increase in FSI, which will automatically lead to a reduction in prices. The rules will also boost organized development in the city. It will also improve the infrastructure in the city, thereby improving the quality of life. Thus, the new rules are beneficial to the home buyers and in some way to developers.
While many advocate Mumbai emerging as an equal opportunity market, Lalit Jain, CREDAI President asserts real estate will always be a buyers’ market. Developers construct houses to cater to the demand for homes. In a city like Mumbai, demand for real estate will always be huge due to the rising population and migration of people to the city in search of livelihood.
“The real estate market in Mumbai offers a lot of opportunities to buyers and sellers alike. As long as there is high demand, there will be projects catering to the demand. With slowdown, I believe the realty market in Mumbai is a market which is tilted towards buyers. But yes, it does offer a lot of opportunities to developers as well,” says Jain.
Jain believes though the DCR rules made developers suffer during its conception, it brings in more transparency in the real estate sector in India. According to him, the FSI taboo need to go and Mumbai need to align itself to global urban norms. The rules are designed to ensure proper and efficient development of a city. The new rule ensures there will be an increase the FSI in a city like Mumbai.
Meanwhile, developers are enjoying the improvement in sentiments after the slew of reforms announced by the government which has led to jump in stock indices and lifted investor mood. They also believe that the improvement in approval processes and environmental clearance will pave the way for launches and revive buyers’ interest. Developers, whose projects were stuck for a couple of years due to lack of approvals and confusion on development rules, are using the current festive season to launch new projects, in the city and its suburbs.
