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.
Continuous rise in interest rates by the banks is dampening the effort of the real estate companies to reduce debt by selling non-core assets.
Eight realty stocks slipped 0.75% to 4.61% on Friday, August 26, at 14:43 IST on BSE on worries higher interest rates could dent demand for residential and commercial property.
Unitech Ltd, India’s second largest real estate company, and DB Realty Ltd continued to struggle with sales in the June quarter amid rising interest rates and slowing demand—a seemingly unceasing plight they share with most of the sector.
India’s real estate sector will be among the worst hit by the Reserve Bank of India’s decision to raise key interest rates, experts have said.
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.
As real estate prices shoot up and interest rates, the outlook for the sector does not look too bright. In its year-end report, Knight Frank has stated that new home sales in India have fallen by 25 per cent due to soaring prices. With the Reserve Bank of India tightening lending norms to developers and raising interest rates, the property market is likely to plumb new lows in 2011 as buyers disappear.
The time of the year has come when everyone is dreaming about the Finance Minister’s briefcase. Though real estate is ready with its list of expectations, experts believe that this year it would be good to expect much from the government owing to the kind of fiscal deficit government is going through. Expectations are high because of the increase in home loan interest rates, which have hampered the affordability of the buyer.
There is a school of thought that states that you should buy a home as soon as you can afford it, or as soon as your home loan application is approved. In fact, the only question one tends to ask in context with home buying is whether property prices and interest rates are amenable at that point in time or not. On the surface, this makes sense. However, not all surfaces are reliable mirrors.
Q3 2024 attracted USD 1.1 Bn inflows, 45% higher over Q3 2023. Office segment drove over half of the investments in Q3 2024, followed by residential with 33% share. Domestic investments accounted for 44% of the total investments during the quarter. Chennai & Mumbai cumulatively attracted 57% of the inflows in Q3 2024. Sustained confidence in Indian economy continued to drive institutional investments into the real estate sector, reaching USD 4.7 billion during the first three quarters of 2024, almost at par with the corresponding period in 2023. Following significant inflows in the first two quarters, Q3 2024 too registered healthy investment inflow of about USD 1.1 billion, reflecting a 45% YoY growth.