Real estate looking up, people start buying once again

Real estate looking up, people start buying once again


"Today flats are being sold, but the pace could be better. Generally things have reversed. In Mumbai also, rightly priced projects have been sold. The major contributor to this is the government policy to generate demand. It brought in stimulus packages, ensured availability of liquidity to the home buyers, interest rates softened," he said.

Another real estate player Indrajit De, chairman of Eden, also said housing loan lending rates cut may attract a few more buyers into the market.

"If the lending rate falls further by 50 basis points, the sales figure will climb up," he said, adding, "Certainly the market is looking up now. Sales have also improved.

"We are selling around 25-30 units (flats) per month. But it was much higher in the range of 55-60 units per month before the recession actually hit India."

Harshavardhan Neotia, chairman, Ambuja Realty Group, told IANS: "Sales have picked up in the last two-three months. There is more offtake now than what it was six months back. But now the buyers are genuine users and not just investors. These are the people who really need housing. They are lot more quality conscious and they look for the right products."

He said there was a drop of 10-15 per cent in the price during the recession period. In the last two-three months the company has sold around 200 flats, he said.

Reacting to the recent announcement by union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on interest subsidy on new home loans and extension of deadline in tax holidays on projects approved by March 2008 if they are completed by March 2012, Rungta said: "One must understand that extending the tax holiday under 80 I B (10) for a mere one year to projects approved by March 2008 will fail to create a significant positive impact on the real estate market. It will only benefit a few micro markets with a handful of projects."

CREDAI has suggested the centre consider extending the dateline to March 2012 for providing tax holidays to projects irrespective of the date of approval. "This will be of greater benefit to the sector and encourage developers to take up new projects and expedite ongoing projects as well."

Rungta further said: "Even the proposed interest subsidy of one per cent to home loan borrowers for loan taken for houses costing up to Rs 20 lakh is also not justified."

CREDAI has proposed that the centre increase the subsidy to home loan interest rates by another one per cent to two per cent and extend the scheme for houses costing upto Rs 30 lakh from the currently proposed valuation of Rs 20 lakh.