The vision of owning a house is slowly getting clearer for buyers as residential real estate prices are beginning to see the promised correction on the back of hardening interest rates and poor transaction volumes.
If you are living as a tenant in Mumbai and seeking to buy a house this year, there seem to be quite a few confusions going around. While some of the reports and projected forecasts may give you a ray of hope, it would rather mislead you and your wait for a cheaper home may actually cost you to pay more in future.
Don’t wait for the right time to buy a house expecting a price correction, say seven out of ten home buyers who are on house hunting. Contrary to the price correction reports, the property search of prospective buyers and sellers across the country have convinced them that cheaper house in 2011 are a fancy and wishful thinking. At least those who have done their home work on property search are pretty sure about it.
Residential markets such as Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi and more have witnessed price corrections ranging from 1%-2.3% during the quarter, suggesting the solidity of the housing sector even in difficult times. However, with this price increase, you will still come across certain real estate brands offering discounts and continuing to sell at the previous cost of construction. In such a scenario, how does one choose the real estate player who is honest and fair in his dealings? My simple answer would be go with a genuine brand but how does one identify what is genuine.
Reports of price correction, more often than not, seem to conceal more than it reveal 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.
Track2Realty Exclusive: It was in the July last year that Rohit Arora, an NRI returned from New Jersey to settle in Mumbai and set up his consultancy business over here. Looking for an office space, he was so carried by the reports of a price correction that he preferred to defer the office acquisition, either on rent or purchase.
Track2Realty Exclusive: The Mumbai property market seems to be determined to break the jinx this festive season with new launches, offers, changed marketing formats and even price correction. If the market trend so far is any indication, it is quite apparent that the developers have gone through the learning curve in the last 2-3 years and are now determined to break the jinx. In this endeavour to bounce back, buyers are smiling all their way to property search and in the process the city property market is defying the collective consciousness of being an over-heated realty market.
The commercial rentals in the country have not seen vibrancy this quarter as some localities have witnessed rental price correction in Q1-12 when compared to Q1-11. However, the southern part of the country, and some localities in Delhi and Mumbai did see per square feet growth figures over a period of one year. Overall commercial rentals in Mumbai saw 2% increase in commercial rentals, Bangalore saw 3% growth and Delhi de-grew by 7% over the last one year. These are the findings of a study by property portal 99acres.com.
During the year 2011 when almost all other matured property market witnessed dip in transaction and price correction was on everyone’s lip, Bangalore registered both healthy transaction as well as upward price movement.
Analysts believe that further price correction may not happen in the metros and suburbs due to the holding capacity of the bigger developers, but lack of funding options may force some standalone local builders to drop prices.