Track2Realty Exclusive: Ramnath Naik had gone on a house hunting spree on Ahram Road of Ahmedabad last year. The price was in the range of Rs. 5000-5500 per sq feet and hence out of his budget at that point of time. Now that he has arranged his budget and again went back to check the property prices with the apprehension of again getting disappointed with the perceived hike in price since then, he was pleasantly surprised. Not only the prices have not gone up, rather it has gone down to Rs. 4000-4500 for the same set of properties. It came with a suggested rider by the broker though-take it now or miss the special rates.
Clueless Naik was wondering whether there has been a price correction or it is just a special festive offer. Many prospective buyers in the area are today suffering from this same anxiety, even though the location promises to be one of the best that the city can offer. There are more reasons to be apprehensive now—will it crash further and make their lifetime’s investment go waste?
After all, even the end-users in property market are always apprehensive of appreciation potential, or the lack of it, even if they buy it for a long time stay. But the investment psyche of home buyers is such that nothing but a sizeable appreciation, even if they never sell it, is what matters to them.
Analysts believe such apprehension are borne out of not understanding the fundamentals of the property market in general and Ahmedabad in particular. Since the property prices have softened a bit from the peak of property rally that sustained momentum in select pockets of Ahemdabad too late 2011, an outside view is giving the impression of a price crash. As a matter of fact, some of the premium lost over here and there is making the properties look even more attractive in the region.
Not only this, what makes the story of Ashram Road all the more attractive is the fact that even during the worst of fall in 2012, the property prices kept hovering around the present scale. This is indicative of the fact that if bought now, Ashram Road has all the promises to give a sizeable appreciation in the next cycle of boom.
Moreover, the festive spirit has kept the developers’ urge to a price hike on hold and hence the property in the locality will never be as attractive as now for the buyers. Developers too are looking to sell the inventory and move to new projects and collectively this means the region will have more pockets of growth in future, leading to the existing property prices go up in near future.
Since the location has a good mix of both residential and commercial developments, it has all the inherent potential to add value as against the locations having only residential or commercial developments. Now that may be a reason why the Ashram Road property is poised for appreciation, for an average buyer like Naik, this puts a full stop over the dilemma of now or never.
