While property still remains the preferred choice of investment of nearly all the Indians, as high as 92 per cent, they are pretty scared of trading in the property market now. While new launches have few takers, most of the transactions are happening in the ready-to-move and other secondary market options.
Nearly seven out of ten, 68 per cent, home buyers prefer ready-to-move property because they can avail for tax benefits only after the possession of the house. Saving tax on the EMI’s is one of the big reasons why nearly eight out of ten, 78 per cent, plan their house buying.
There is a clear disconnect between what home buyers want and what they get. And it is here that the home buyers are ready to pay more to get what they see to believe. While the frequency of launching new residential projects have declined in the last year or so, there is also sizeable inventory building up that is available for buyers who are willing to make that investment.
While buying a house majority of the Indians have now matured to pay for ready-to-move property than a castle in the air. No wonder, despite the high appreciation potential, the new launched projects have few takers and there is hardly any market for a pre-launch offer. Thanks to the poor delivery of the real estate developers, unmet commitments and execution risk involved, at least the end users are not interested in new launches anymore.
The government has said “no specific instance” of flow of terror funds into the real estate sector has come to its notice. “As per the current assessment of revenue intelligence agencies…no specific instance of flow of terror funds into the real estate sector has been found,” Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha. However, he said, “investigations by the Income Tax Department reveal unaccounted or undisclosed income or assets in various sectors of the economy, including real estate.”
Property consultants and real estate developers have demanded industry status to the realty sector in the forthcoming Budget.
The real estate sector in Punjab is likely to witness sluggishness in the run up to Assembly elections in the state next month.
Steady rise in the price of construction material, like cement, steel, bricks, coupled with a shortage of skilled labourers, has hit the realty sector in Gujarat, an office-bearer of state-CREDAI said.
The festival of Diwali has a direct bearing on the property market, and irrespective of the overall macro economic scenario the property transactions around this time of the year have been the maximum.
In a further blow to the dampened Diwali spirit of the realty sector, the RBI raised interest rates on today but said it was likely to hold off on further increases as it expects high inflation to ease beginning in December.