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.
The months before the festive season are generally lull for the property market. Indians are mentally wired to buy the high valuables on the auspicious dates during the festivals. However, this seems to be changing in the property market this time around, as economic rationale indicates preference over religious beliefs. The vast majority of the home buyers anticipate price appreciation during the festive season.
Post Covid, the Indian real estate is witness to a K-shape recovery where the listed & larger players are increasing their market share at the cost of smaller ones. Prima facie, what sounds like a market-linked reform, have concerns & repercussions that run much deeper. Is the current criterion of assessing a market with fiscal performance justified? Can only a handful of branded developers be the answer to India’s housing woes, questions Track2Realty.
This is not a one-off stray incident of cheating in the housing market in this part of the world. Srikanth had a similar experience with the Gurugram-based developer when he wished to sell out his much-delayed under-construction property due to medical emergency in the family. The developer refused to transfer the property in the name of the new buyer. He instead offered him to buy back the said property at three years old price when Srikanth had booked the apartment. The choice for this harassed home buyer was to either forget about the appreciation or else get into a costly and lengthy litigation.
Stock market is generally defined as the “Bull market versus ‘Bear Market’. In real estate, the expression has generally been all about ‘Bullish Market’, ‘Upbeat market’, ‘Wait & Watch Market’, and ‘Pessimist Market’. ‘Bear Market’ as a term has generally not been used in the context of the housing market. Track2Realty questions why? Is it because a ‘Bear Market’ is just not possible in real estate? Or is it because real estate as an asset class has an altogether different means of cost & benefit analysis.
Corporate governance & professionalism seem to be the emerging mantra of survival for Indian real estate. But the man who visualised the need for this decades back, maintains a low profile to not take any credit as the first-mover of institutionalising Indian real estate. As the industry body CREDAI decorates Ravi Puravankara for the lifetime achievement, Ravi Sinha interviews him to understand what goaded this first-mover to adopt corporate governance.
Prestige Group has emerged as the new Brand Leader of Indian real estate. The brand had continuously been closer to the Leadership and among the Top 3 National Brands. Brigade Group makes a giant leap and jumps from Number 5 to now the 2nd Best Brand of the business. DLF is continuously scaling up and now rests as 3rd Best Brand at the National level. Godrej Properties is losing its sheen as a Valuable Brand and slips down to Number 5 from Number 2 this fiscal year. Puravankara is also proving to be the Dark Horse of the National Brand Leadership and emerges from Number 7 to now at Number 5.
Shankar Mishra is a masonry worker at a construction site in Bengaluru. During the peak of the Covid-19, he was one among the thousands of workers who had no other option but to reverse migrate facing all odds. He thought at that point of time that his career as a mason worker was over. However, he had the surprise of his lifetime when the developer’s construction manager called him back and even offered to send a flight ticket for the same. Track2Realty traces the labour condition post the pandemic.
Ramneek Sethi, an IT professional wanted to invest in the stock market. He was keen on real estate stocks keeping in mind its growth potential and India’s increasing urbanisation. However, a meeting with the financial planner changed his mind. The financial planner categorically asked him to stay away from volatile real estate stocks and instead get into the power play through proxies in cement, steel, and other ancillary businesses. Reason: Real estate stocks are not just volatile, but more often than not even defy the principles of fundamental analysis and technical analysis.
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.