Fitch Ratings says in a new report that the Rating Outlook for the Indian real estate sector continues to be Negative for H212, due to persistent sluggish demand, high construction costs and liquidity pressures.
The RBI, on Tuesday, July 31, kept the repo rate or the rate at which banks borrow from RBI unchanged at 8% and also the reverse repo rate at which, the banks lend to RBI unchanged at 7%. However, it has lowered the statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) to 23% from 24% earlier. The realty sector, reeling under liquidity pressure and low demand due to high interest rate, has reacted sharply over this status quo.
The economy is facing difficulties on several fronts, including declining GDP growth, high inflation, high fiscal and current account deficits and depreciation of the rupee. The poor performance of the stock market has attracted a lot of negative press in recent months and this was reflected in the commercial real estate market which remained tepid in Q2 2012, says a DTZ research.
The annual monsoons have always been perceived both as a rural blessing and an urban curse – they are good news for the agrarian sector and the bane of water-logging prone cities. However, this caricatured mind-set is breaking.
The Bangalore-based publicly-held Sobha Developers has said its sales realisation has gone up 26 per cent on a year-on-year basis while the sales volumes have gone up 25 per cent. On a sequential basis, the realisation is up 7 per cent while the sales being marginally down.
Revenues of top-25 realty companies declined 9.30% in Q4FY12, mainly on account of low sales off-take due to higher prices and higher mortgage rates, says a Knight Frank India Research on Economy and Realty at glance. The study says the Realty Index on Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) has dropped by more than 26% during the last one year compared to a 10% fall in the Sensex during the last fiscal year.
Anticipating a significant rate cut by the RBI, disappointed real estate community has ring alarm bells and forecast more slump due to the high interest rate regime. Pointing out that the capital and labour intensive sector plays a key role in employment generation and accelerating growth, industry body CREDAI says the government has also been losers of revenue due to neglect of the sector and risks attributed to real estate and the RBI advisories against lending to real estate have only harmed the sector and made housing costlier for consumers, apart from affecting the economy.
Omaxe has reported a more than two-fold jump in its consolidated net profit at Rs 23.73 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2012 as against Rs 11.67 crore in the year-ago period.
The income from operations increased by six per cent to Rs 603.58 crore in the fourth quarter of 2011-12 as compared with Rs 568.60 crore in the corresponding period of previous year.
The world’s housing markets moved clearly down during the year to the first quarter of 2012, according to the Global Property Guide’s latest house price indices survey. House prices fell in 24 countries, of the 36 countries for which quarterly house price statistics are available, and rose in only 12 countries.
India is reeling under the continued onslaught of inflation, petrol price hikes and generalized insecurity about where the economy is headed. Against all expectations, property prices in our metros have held firm and even show signs of upward movement. While the man on the street continues to wonder when he will be able to buy a modest home of his own, India’s super-rich are raising palatial homes at truly astronomical expense.