Track2Realty Exclusive: Elections are part of a vibrant democracy. And like everyone else who is part of this democratic system, the developer community also pins hope on the upcoming elections. We are, in fact, watching all development with bated breath. We will keenly follow the five Assembly elections to be followed by the general elections of 2014 without any bias and in a totally unattached manner with no political affiliations whatsoever.
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: Against all the prophecies of doomsday in the realty market, Delhi-NCR has not only grown in the last four-five years, but also has been among the best performing markets in the country. The growth has been slow but steady and analysts believe it is time the property market of Delhi-NCR needs a catalyst to put it on the fast forward mode of growth.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Noida seems to be on a highway of growth corridor and is fast emerging from the shadow of being poor cousin of NCR’s glorified market of Gurgaon. If the spate of luxury and other high-end launches are any indication, already Noida is in the process of an image makeover where the investors’ confidence is increasingly tilting in its favour. The price appreciation in the last over a year across the Delhi-NCR region suggests that Noida has been witness to the best ROI to the investors.
Track2Realty: With economy witnessing a downturn, interest rates and inflation reaching all-time highs, 2013 has been one of the most eventful years for Real Estate in India. While introduction of Real Estate Regulatory Bill and Land Acquisitions Bills in the Parliament was positive for the real estate industry, end users sitting on the fence expecting a fall in prices lead to a contraction of demand in the past few quarters.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Real estate gains are not always short-term but often long-term from investment point of view. The same can be said about 2013 where despite of an outside view dismissing the year 2013 for low sales velocity, piling inventory, liquidity crunch and policy ambiguity, added to the country moving to the General Elections in 2014, the sector has managed to pave the way for long term reforms.
Track2Realty: There are still significant investment opportunities left in India’s real estate market. For investors looking at cost-effective projects to park their funds, this might be a right time as weak market sentiments are likely to lead to weak valuations, providing windows for investing in quality projects.
Track2Realty Exclusive: A McKinsey report to the Government of India on cost of approval had clearly pointed out that the costs incurred on account of various approvals could constitute anything up to 40 per cent of the sale value. Such is the enormity of the problem of approvals and that the challenge of negativity that we suffer from.
Track2Realty Exclusive: It is said that this sector encourages black money and corruption, which is sad and upsetting for all developers/entrepreneurs who put in their best efforts to run the business.
Track2Realty Exclusive: As the country faces problems over land acquisition, events around the issue have been tarnishing the image of India’s built environment. Across sectors — real estate, infrastructure and construction events have not been conducive enough to create a good environment for investments. In addition, fragmentation and irregularities within the market, instances of fly-by-night-operators duping the consumers, an absence of regulation over transactions and developers have given a bad name to the environment.