Isn’t it ironic that in a country where housing shortage is at the core of policy debates, housing surplus in top Indian cities is juxtaposed to that. As a matter of fact, the reality of unsold housing units poses an even greater degree of imbalance than the housing shortage. But then unsold inventory is a symptom and not the cause of malaise in the housing market of the country. A Track2Realty report.
I meet a number of stakeholders across the built environment of Indian real estate. One common narrative that has gained ground within the built environment over the years is that “this is the best time to buy a house.” Mind you! This narrative was being pushed through the throat even before Covid. Even though the real estate market in general and the housing market in particular has been going through a turbulent phase, the narrative has never changed its course.
News reports of real estate nowadays is making me religious. The reports about Supertech Twin Tower demolition is giving me “SPIRITUAL” feeling. If these media reports are to be believed, henceforth all the government officials will be careful in sanctioning the building plans, builders will be fearful with the law and the judiciary will be trusted as more pro-active than reactive. Isn’t it a proverbial “Ram Rajya” for the home buyers?
Ramneek Patel, an MNC executive in Gurugram is on a company leased accommodation and the HR is deducting INR 40,000 per month for his rented apartment. Now that the Goods & Service Tax (GST) has been imposed for rental residential units to companies, he has been told by the company that the said liability will be passed on to the employees living in company leased apartments. They can otherwise find an apartment on their own.
Freedom is a luxury and it means different things to different set of people. The stakeholders within the built environment of the Indian real estate too have their own set of definition when it comes to what defines their freedom. While for a home buyer, freedom is to have a rent-free house of one’s own at an affordable price, for the developers the quest has been freedom from multiple bottlenecks – single window clearance, industry status, easy funding and, most importantly, FSI free developments. Track2Realty investigates whether ‘Freedom From FSI’ would be boon or bane.
India’s urban housing today could at best be described as a soda bottle syndrome where the constant rural push to the select few urban centers could explode at any given point of time. It is not that the policy makers are unaware with the growing population and its dependence over the metro cities. As a matter of fact, when the country’s first planned city, Chandigarh, came into existence as a horizontal city that could cater as the capital of both the Punjab and Haryana State, it seemed to be independent India’s first tryst with organized urban planning in general and its housing solution in particular.
Just when the real estate industry bodies had firmed up their public posturing to halt construction with allegation of cartelisation by the cement & steel producers, there was uneasiness at the developers’ end. Many of them had their back of the envelope calculation as to whether the construction strike would actually help or hurt the business. Track2Realty tries to get into the depth of the issue.
Much before the outbreak of pandemic Coronavirus, the Indian real estate sector battling with the consistent slowdown was looking up to the turnaround catalyst. While the success of REIT had given it a glimmer of hope, the fund managers had their eyes set on a segment that has the potential to not just spread across the country but give a piggy ride to other segments as well, most notably to the housing. Track2Realty finds the warehousing & logistics to emerge as the mainstream real estate in the last few years.
Budget after budget the industry voices across the built environment of the Indian real estate echo the causes & concerns of the supply side – builders. On the eve of the Union Budget 2021-22, it is imperative to address the issues that affect the demand side – buyers. Failing to address the buyers issues, would be detrimental to the revival of the sector which, in turn, is critically linked to the revival of the economy at large.
The statistics are scary for any salaried class across the cities of India who has an EMI to pay for his home purchase. The Indian Chamber of Commerce has estimated that the real estate would be witness to 65% defaults from the buyers of under construction projects due to Coronavirus hit lockdown. The estimation is not without its logical reasons. A CII snap poll of the CEOs finds that 52 percent of the companies surveyed foresee job losses, in their respective sectors.