Wait and watch to buy your dream home

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Rishi and Ria are tired of shifting from one flat to another after every 11 months. They have been searching for their dream home, but the current market scenario has made them think again if it’s safe to go in for a buy right now? Real estate developers and international property consultants are also keenly watching the current slowdown in the real estate sector due to an amalgam of reasons. These include high interest rates on home loans, reduced liquidity among developers because of credit crunch apart from lack of availability of affordable housing.

Being at a defining point in the history in the real estate, it’s time to know as to how will the sector perform in the next year. Rarely has a business sector seen so much churn, conjecture, simultaneous pessimism and optimism and prophetic predictions in just a few months. Anuj Puri, Chairman and Country Head, Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj says, “Due to the ongoing inflationary trends, the Indian real estate sector is likely to under-perform for at least the next six to 12 months. During this period, investors are well-advised to concentrate only on key listed players who are better placed to ride out the storm by virtue of their unique business model or via tactical strategy shifts.” Industry experts believe that in the residential space, developers must now be ready to lower their selling prices in order to revive demand as end users are only waiting for this to happen. Once this happens, an upswing in residential real estate sales will be seen again.

Sanjay Dutt, Managing Director, Cushman & Wakefiled says, “Real estate market will be strong here in the long term. Developers should not tie-up with many private equity players, but only with the select few reliable ones. They are tapping several opportunities to de-risk through alternate routes including selective private equity players apart from partly selling their finished products or projects.” For instance, Delhi-based Uppal builders — who are into residential and commercial developments — have also forayed into development of special economic zones (SEZs) by tying up with Vornado, (specialist in developing SEZs) of USA.