Much has been written and said about the events of the last 24 months in the world economy, and for all the ?bragaddoccio? of India?s 7-8% GDP growth, the Indian realty market received a body blow. The real estate sector effectively reacted to the world economic crisis, by going into deep coma. The developer community was forced to face circumstances that irretrievably altered their view, which the gods would forever smile upon them, competencies notwithstanding.

The party years of real estate, before the inevitable crash were in many ways a wild binge of credit-fuelled speculative excess.

Gilded apartments, adorned with every unnecessary gizmo under the sun were announced to be built, on land that was nothing more than fallow, located often in the middle of nowhere and largely used for grazing cattle on sparse fodder.

Someone somewhere should have yelled ?stop? but no one did…..until of course the eternal self-correcting nature of markets, extended its tentacle to correct this aberration.

The effect of the credit crunch on the Indian real estate sector has been deep and structural in nature.

The country top developers loaded up to their gills on expensive short-term debt, taken on the in the heyday, are now effectively left with balancesheets that resemble dancing monkeys, permanently on their backs.

In all my informal chats with promoters of all major Indian realty companies, what starts of as a conversation about real estate in India, very soon ends up as a conversation about structured finance, the role of private equity, the IPO glut etc and the energy and focus that should be channelised in the direction of providing affordable yet aspirational housing to India?s emerging middle class, is actually being utilised to manage the dancing monkeys of high cost short term debt.

This is both a calamity and an opportunity.

And it is this opportunity that is providing the Indian real estate sector with the promise of a new dawn.

While the real estate biggies nurse with their post boom hangover and try and figure a way out of their debt woes, there has emerged a new wave of young companies to address the needs and aspirations of India?s new recently enriched middle class.

A breed of new small and often niche? regional developers is now taking centre-stage and creating a new eco-system in the real estate market.

So while the headlines are grabbed by the financial jugglery of the distressed realty majors, the scene of the action has quietly shifted to what may be referred to as India?s ?new age? developers. Young dynamic companies like IREO and 3C in the north, Windmills of the Mind and Nitesh Estates in the south and numerous other young companies have met with unprecedented success with their real estate offerings. Sales figures of new home sales in the last 3 months show startling trends. The ?new-age? developers have out sold the real estate biggies on all metrics including value of home sales as well as units sold.

The old order finds itself dealing with young upstart companies whose focus is on excellence, project delivery and strangely for the real estate sector, even on customer satisfaction.

And as the dust settles on the post-crisis new emerging economic order, many surprises are in store for the established hierarchy amongst the real estate players in India.

In many ways, the rising class of Indian home-owners owe a debt of gratitude to the ?dancing monkeys?, they have provided the sector with a much needed promise of a new dawn.