Track2Realty: With the new government now firmly in charge of steering the country, the Indian economy is perched on the threshold of recovery and growth. The serious issues that have plagued the sector for so long may now be proactively addressed.
Track2Realty Exclusive: The east coast of Delhi-NCR has been on a roll and bucking all the trends of slowdown areas in and around, most importantly Ghaziabad, NH 24 stretch and Noida have done better than the national average in the last couple of years. To say that the property market in this part of the world has been more realistic having registered more property transactions would be stating the obvious.
Track2Realty Exclusive: The Real Estate Regulation Bill will define and clarify various concepts in the sector; this will bring in transparency and curb unfair practices. Following the trend seen in other sectors like telecom, banking, insurance etc, the Bill provides for creation of a separate Regulator and Appellate Authority. While it is expected to provide specialized regulation and enforcement, this should not become another regulatory in the ‘approval’ matrix.
Track2Realty: Although the Interim Budget announcement supporting affordable housing was welcomed by the real estate industry, the segment has a long way ahead as yet. To begin with, there is considerable supply shortage in this arena—pegged at 18.78 million for the 12th Five Year Plan (2012–2017) by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Ministry (HUPA), of which 96% is in the EWS and LIG categories. Housing shortage for the EWS stands at almost 11 million homes, while that for LIG stands at 7.41 million homes.
Track2Realty: Transactions in India’s real estate space might have slowed down over the last two quarters, but the sector has not been overwhelmed by the state of the wider economy. Despite the subdued pre-election economic scenario, in fact, the period observed an increase in private equity activity.
Track2Realty Exclusive: There is no clear-cut definition of the term ‘affordable’, as it is a relative concept and could have several indirect meanings in different contexts. In India, private developers primarily target luxury, high-end and upper-mid housing segment, since it fetches a premium over low income housing. This leads to a sustained supply for this segment, increasing market competitiveness for developers.
The Finance Ministry is building safeguards to ensure realty companies do not misuse the external commercial borrowing (ECB) window announced in the Budget by diverting the money.
It is a highly disappointing budget. The Finance Minister has miserably failed in highlighting the importance the role of Housing in economy, employment generation, apart from the very need of housing. The announcements on ECB for affordable housing is a minor respite but still meaningless.
The Budget is relying heavily on maintaining the trajectory of growth in the economy to provide solutions for inclusive growth that touch the ‘Aam Aadmi’ and parallelly stressing on governance aspects, which hopefully will be covered separately through concrete action plans to deal with the menace of unaccounted wealth. The trend for consolidation is expected to continue.
The surge in demand for luxury housing has been primarily attributable to a growing preference among affluent buyers for enhanced amenities and more spacious living areas that complement their multifaceted lifestyles. Moreover, the increasing aspirational class has significantly contributed to the increased demand for luxury properties. Furthermore, the rise in NRI and astute domestic investors in the Indian real estate market has considerably fueled the heightened demand for luxury residences.