Affordable housing is witness to degrowth at a time when luxury housing is on a roll. A perception has hence gained ground that the higher interest rates in the range of 8.5-9% is what is the bottleneck for the buyers. However, the fence sitting buyers across the country, more so in the affordable segment, don’t think so. They rather cite the empirical evidence when the housing market was on a roll even when the interest rates were in double digit.
Evaluation of the real estate brands has never been as challenging in India as it is now. After all, the large & listed real estate developers across the country are exhibiting identical patterns with their performance. Nearly all of them are witness to their best-ever fiscal topline as well as stock performance. The combined market share, fiscal performance and market cap of some 20-0dd listed real estate companies would be more than half the revenue of Indian real estate.
Some of the English dailies had come up with marvellous marketing idea, as they called it then, of barter deals which they thought was a win-win for both the media houses as well as the builders. They got into a barter deal where builder got crores of advertising space with the publication without a single rupee exchanging hands. In such deals, the media houses instead of advertising revenue got that much exchange value of property in the upcoming projects of these builders. Property supplements were launched by the mainline newspapers that violated all ethics of journalism to glorify the builders and their projects. Such was the clout of these builders that they even interfered in the editorial policies of these newspapers. They felt empowered & free to label the news copy and the journalists as negative, if they didn’t like a news item.
On a scale of 0-100, the Housing Sentiment Index has been noted to be just 18; with 82% Indians categorically believing that housing is just not affordable to them. A vast majority of them, as many as 80%, believe it would take no less than 10 years of their gross income to afford a house in any of the leading Indian cities. The global benchmark is 5 years of gross income with not more than 40% of take-home salary. But 78% Indians believe it would take no less than 60% take home salary to buy a house in India.
The outlook of the Indian real estate on the eve of 2025 could confuse any neutral analyst. But for the insider analysts who are actually stakeholder-cum-expert, it is like another new year with hopes and promises galore. The stakeholders are so upbeat that all the industry reports are projecting a bullish upcycle to continue for the next few years, thus taking Indian real estate to a valuation of $10 trillion by 2047. Track2Realty finds that the ground reality for a commo0n man looking for a house in his affordable budget stands in contrast.
How was the festive season for property market this year? The answer depends upon whom are you addressing the question. For the large universe of the developers, it was worse festive season in the last 5-7 years. But for a few select listed developers, the fortunes are different. The ground reality of the market is that Diwali fireworks was definitely missing for Indian real in 2024, despite over optimism and influence peddling ahead of the festive season. Track2Realty analysis.
The report of an impending housing recession in the US housing market is a worrying factor for a section of analysts in India. As per the reports coming out of the US market, the pricing remains firm but the sales have slowed down. As per a report by the NAR (National Association of Realtors), the home sales have slowed down for six consecutive months in July. Track2Realty reports.
Shankar Mishra is a masonry worker at a construction site in Bengaluru. During the peak of the Covid-19, he was one among the thousands of workers who had no other option but to reverse migrate facing all odds. He thought at that point of time that his career as a mason worker was over. However, he had the surprise of his lifetime when the developer’s construction manager called him back and even offered to send a flight ticket for the same. Track2Realty traces the labour condition post the pandemic.
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has agreed to initiate insolvency proceedings against real estate developer Ansal Properties & Infrastructures (Ansal API). The petition for the same was filed by 126 flat buyers of one of the company’s housing projects called “The Fernhill”.
The reports of Adani Realty merger with DB Realty has taken market analysts by surprise. According to the sources close to the developments, this is Adani’s bid to get into listed realty companies’ portfolio. However, the larger question that only Adani Realty can answer is that to what extent would the giant carry over the baggage of the tainted DB Realty. The memories of Godrej Properties announcement to join hands and getting market backlash of shareholders are still fresh in public memory. A Track2Realty analysis.