Online Desk: Real estate market to Recover in 2018
In accordance with the previous three-four years, the performance of real estate in 2017 was dull as far as growth in prices and sales. Real estate which was one of the most sought-after Investment Avenue in India has seen a dip in its popularity off late because of the stagnation or dip in prices. Aside from this, real estate has been considered a safe place for parking black money but the reforms such as Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA) and Goods & Services Tax (GST) and Demonetisation brought in by the government to check the black money menace which has hit the sector hard. In some of the real estate markets, the sales are yet to catch up to the pre-demonetisation level.
In 2017, 1.6 lakh units were sold during Q1-Q3 2017 as per research. The decline in sales was only to the tune of 30% compared to Q1-Q3 2016.Also, the number of new launches were also limited.
Only 94,000 units were added in top 7 cities of India between Q1-Q3 2017, which is a drop of more than 50% from the same period in 2016.
However, experts believe that real estate market is going through a transitional phase. Things are going to get better over time and the reforms will help in shaping up the industry to a more consumer-friendly market.
“Overall, 2017 saw the Government making it clear that home buyers will no longer be at the mercy of real estate developers, and putting various measures in place to ensure that housing supply syncs up with demand and pertinent projects are developed. There are doubtlessly some teething troubles – some of them very obvious – in implementing and executing the new policies and reforms. However, they have made a deep impact even now,” says Pardeep Mishra, CEO –Indiazhousing.com
Affordable Housing is going to be the big thing in 2018 given the thrust by the government. The government has awarded it with the much-needed infrastructure status. The definition of affordable housing and houses classified under mid-income group was also changed by the government to cover a larger buyer base and help developers offload their budget homes inventory.
BY
Ramish Naqvi