1st of the series
Track2Realty Exclusive
The never ending debate on whether this is the right time to buy will continue in 2012. It seems to remain buyers’ market, though Track2Realty finds that the era of quick appreciation is over in the property market.
Just when the economy started giving indications of recovery and real estate companies putting up a brave face, with very many IPOs in the pipeline at the beginning of the year 2011, it seems the sector has lost the buzz yet again by the end of the year. Nothing seems to be going in sector’s favour with interest rate expected to escalate further in 2012 and shrinking sales, rising inventories and tight liquidity, all pushing the realty market to a crisis of confidence on a macro level.
However, this market indicator also rakes up the question as to whether this is the right time to buy property. After all, buyer’s market has always been a wishful thinking of the home seekers. Moreover, it seems many of the prospective home buyers who had put their plans on shelf due to the threat of job loss & inability to pay the EMIs borne out of recession are back in the property hunt.
All industry trends seem to conceal more than it reveals on the pulse of the property barometer. The answer as to whether this is the right time to buy is not a simple yes or no, but it depends on a number of factors like whether a buyer is looking for first or second house, for living or investment, if investment then it is for the long run or short run etc.
If we take two property hotspots in the country, Delhi-NCR and Mumbai as case study here, it has seen three booms and three slumps in the last over a decade. The ups and downs may continue regardless of prevailing market sentiments, depending on the project, geographical locations and various other factors.
Though the developers in the last few years were forced to launch affordable houses for common man, the dimension and specification of new offerings are lower than those of earlier apartments.
Floored by the highway billboards, Preeti Banerjee went on a house hunting spree. What she was offered with the new affordable launches was not only a cut in the per sq ft prices but also reduced size of apartments by almost 30-40 per cent. This television producer soon realized that “it is all marketing gimmick and while price cut is advertised, compromise in specification is the hidden factor. The combined effect is that prices of so-called affordable apartments have not gone down as low as they appear.”
