Isn’t it ironic that in a housing market like India where the predominant demand is for ready to move houses, this segment too has a record unsold inventory standing. As per the statistics, out of the total 7.85 lakh unsold inventory, nearly 20 per cent are ready to move. Mind you! We are only talking about the top 8 cities of India. A cumulative figure of pan-India unsold ready to move housi9ng inventory would look even more scary.
To say that women workforce in the Indian real estate has broken the proverbial glass ceiling would be stating the obvious. Far from being perceived as a decorative value at the reception only, the women have now stormed into critical areas, from sales to consumer grievances and corporate communication to legal. Many of them have even been into the decision making and the work culture in many of the Grade A real estate companies appear to be gender neutral.
There is no denying that the real estate stocks have always been high in demand for investors. After all, in a housing deficient country like India it has to constantly grow. Isn’t it? However, what is often intriguing is that some of the real estate stocks have much higher price point, compared to the industry peers with similar fundamentals, including the EPS and PE ratio. This raises a fundamental question as to what determines the price of the real estate stocks.
Ever since the beginning of the year 2023, the real estate industry stakeholders are going gaga with the narrative of a turnaround year. It is not that such misplaced optimism has not hurt their cause in the past, but the leading voices of the sector seem to believe that a false narrative would goad the home buyers to make a beeline at the sales office. The industry narrative is hence tilted towards what could easily be vouchsafed as misplaced optimism.
The Union Budget 2023-24 has by and large ignored the long standing and some immediate concerns (even needs than wants) of the Indian real estate sector. The Finance Minister has not only ignored the supply side of the business, but also didn’t bother to address the demand side, that is the home buyers. Ironically, the leading voices of the sector are still happy with some of the intangible gains even though tangible benefits are non-existent.
On Puravankara’s future plans he said, “We will continue to work towards expanding our market share,and we are excited to announce that in Q3FY23 the group has achieved increased revenue from projects by 77%, increased collection from operations by 87% from construction and delivery against the similar quarter in the previous year. This is supported by increased sales and new launches of over 4.11 msft in 9MFY23 with the last quarter of the current financial year adding another 2.17 msft. Our per Sq. Ft. of debt on under construction area has reduced by 49% from INR 2,524 to INR 1,291 over the last four years.
The Union Budget 2023-24 has offered more intangible benefits than tangible gains for the real estate sector. It is hence no surprise that while the average home buyers got busy in their tax calculations immediately after the Finance Minister’s budget speech, the industry stakeholders have by and large given a thumbs up to the budget. A Track2Realty report.
The Union Budget this time would be the last full budget ahead of the General Elections due next year. The real estate sector is yet again parroting the old demands, with the only difference being that the concerns of the home buyers too finds a place in their wish list. The developers have come to realise that the home buyers can no longer be ignored as they are the most necessary in the real estate business cycle.
The outlook for construction costs remains stable but cautious, as market volatility is likely to persist in 2023 along with monetary tightening, continued high inflation, a possibility of a recession in developed economies and geopolitical turmoil-related challenges going forward. Therefore, CBRE forecasts a marginal rise in the overall construction costs during 2023 across cities, with Mumbai likely to witness a sharper rise.
The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has set aside the order of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) that had directed to initiate insolvency proceedings against BPTP Ltd. The realty firm has now settled disputes with the operational creditor.