Haryana Government would like to address it as pro-farmer move, the real estate sector would like to hail it as investment friendly and others within the built environment of real estate would like to call it a step that would bring to the market more supply and hence affordability.
The year 2015 should have been the year of realization that the days of creating ghost cities with inventory for investors is over. The greedy investor is no more interested in blocking his money with a business where the returns in any of India’s major housing market is not more than six per cent today.
Immediately after the earthquake in Delhi-NCR a builder sends a group WhatsApp message that says: Our project in Noida is NCR’s 1st and only earthquake resistant structure with seismic zone V compliance approved by IIT Bombay. Possession next month.” It does not go down well in the collective consciousness as an impression gains ground that the developers are evaluating the opportunity cost in times of a natural calamity. This message nevertheless raises more questions than it tries to answer that the given project is earthquake complaint.
Why do you buy a house in Noida, Noida Extension, Ghaziabad, Faridabad or even non-descript & hard-to-commute locations of NCR when you work in Delhi? If affordability is not the issue, won’t you prefer to live in the capital Delhi and not the satellite cities of NCR?
In the real estate market consumer activism in India may have been high in recent times, but consumer awareness is pretty low. Most of the first time home buyers even fail to differentiate between what they want and what they need in an apartment, forget about their knowledge with regard to legalities and necessary checklist. The mismatch between developers’ offerings and buyers’ perception is a critical missing link leading to an impression gaining ground that the developer has not fulfilled his promise.
“How long can a sector survive which is borrowing at 48 per cent from private lenders to serve the interest of previous debt raised at much lower rate,” asks a banker. His concern is not without valid reasons. Developers experimented with all funding options but still many of them are now being forced to seek other sources of funding which not only comes at a significantly higher cost but also where the source of fund is unregulated.
No other residential micro market of India has arguably weathered as many challenges and controversies as Noida Extension. Its inception as a separate zone, other than Noida & Greater Noida, did lend credence to conspiracy theories against the farmers that culminated into land acquisition litigation. Since then it has been a sordid saga of project delivery uncertainties and homebuyers endless wait; not to speak of the additional charges levied as against the compensation amount hiked to the farmers.
Track2Realty Investment Magnet Report 2015 tries to decode the alphabets of India’s housing market. The editorial team has not invented these alphabetic connotations and everyone in the sector is well aware of the alphabetic practices as well, yet we simplify it for the average investors and homebuyers who often forget the basics that make their fortunes vary. Familiarity with the given A to Z is often the difference between a skilled homebuyer and a novice.
In the last five years of our editorial journey our constant endeavor has been to establish Track2Realty as a constructive critic of Indian real estate. In the process we have also succeeded in setting up a few benchmark along the way where Track2Realty has been accepted as the milestone of high quality journalism.
In a price-sensitive market like Pune, affordable housing is always in demand. The city’s working and earning middle class is constantly on the lookout for good homes available within their budget. This festive season, the Pune market is showing signs of increased activity as always, but the onus is on homes which fit people’s budgets.