Track2Realty: India’s economy grew 5.7% y-o-y in Q1 2014–15 (April–June) belying market forecasts of 5.3%, and showing signs of recovery following annual growth numbers of between 4.4% and 5.2% in each quarter between Q1 2012–13 and Q4 2013–14.
Track2Realty: Demand for housing across leading cities remained subdued in the first half of 2014. Owing to high pricing and lending rates, buyer preference remained focused on secondary and emerging markets of leading cities; while developers began to offer discounts to boost sales ahead of the festive season. This general slackness in housing sales has been primarily triggered off by the Affordability Index going down in certain cities; although home buyers have been investing in markets that they perceive to be offering value for the product, as well as the preferred location.
Track2Realty: The residential real estate market across leading cities of the country is unlikely to see any traction before the upcoming festive season, when demand is expected to improve. While buyers have held off purchase decisions in anticipation of lowering interest rates, developers have been waiting for the festive season before launching special schemes and discounts to boost housing sales.
Track2Realty: The Grade A commercial office market in the Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) attracted an increase in demand for office space, with rental values rising across select established micro-markets during the quarter ended June 2014.
Track2Realty: Following the slow market conditions of the last couple of quarters, Mumbai’s office market saw a slight spurt in market sentiments in the second quarter of 2014. The city’s overall real estate market is anticipated to fare better in the third quarter over the second quarter of the year.
Track2Realty: In India’s competitive real estate market, luxury housing projects have been launched aplenty over the last couple of years. So much so that a conservative market like Chennai, for instance, is likely to witness about 1,500 units of ultra-luxury homes—budgeted between Rs. 5–20 crore—within the next 12 months.
Track2Realty: Expectations of an economic turnaround were belied with GDP growth slowing down to about 4.7% for FY 2013–14, marking it as the second straight year with below-5% growth.
Track2Realty: For the quarter ended March 2014, nearly US$800 million was invested into India’s real estate sector. This translates to almost Rs.4,800 crore having been injected into the sector through the private equity route over the past few months. This couldn’t have happened at a more opportune timefor a sector faced with a liquidity crunch, high land acquisition costs, and stringent due diligence from the banking sector—which continues to perceive real estate as a high-risk domain in India.
Track2Realty: CBRE has launched its first Shaping Trends in Logistics report. It examines trends that are acting as key agents of change in the Asia Pacific logistics market. The report focusses on the factors behind the strong underlying demand for logistics space, and expected positive rental growth for Asia Pacific’s logistics warehouses.
Track2Realty: As consumers continued to face inflation and high interest rates in April, average household spending seemed unlikely to recover in the near term. Subdued market sentiments looked likely to continue unless consumer confidence began to rise.