 |
-
News by Month
-
News by Category
MCHI’s Housing Expo Fails to Lure Buyers
Going by footfalls — around 50,000— at the four-day property exhibition of the Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry (MCHI) that concluded on Sunday, it was a success. But the actual transactions were not encouraging. Over 57% of projects displayed by 80-odd developers at the largest housing exhibition in the country, were that would be ready only after March 2010, states a report by the stock broking company Centrum Research Estimates. It says, “Although each stall got a high number of enquiries, buyers were reluctant to go ahead with any purchase owing to prices remaining unaffordable and possession dates of comparatively lower-priced projects ranging from 24 to 36 months.”
In an opinion poll by the company at the exhibition, most people said that in view of job insecurity and salary cuts they are waiting for a further 20% price correction. The report terms the Mumbai real estate market as the ‘slickest’ as compared to the National Capital Region, Bangalore and Chennai which have seen prices plummet by 30-40%, property prices in Mumbai have fallen only by 15-20%. “The common refrain was that developers were holding on to unrealistic prices. Around 70% of buyers said they would wait for another correction of 20% before buying.”
Another interesting trend observed is that 75% of the projects at the exhibition were offered at an earlier exhibition in October last pointing to little or no off-take in residential volumes since then. It predicts that a further 15-20% correction until June 2009 is imminent and that that transaction volumes in Mumbai will pick up from October 2009. Only select projects are attracting buyers until then. These include that by developers such as HDIL and Ajmera Realty, which are priced 30% lower than the market price. HDIL claims that flats in lucratively priced projects such as Metropolis Residences at Andheri and Premier Residences at Kurla have almost all sold out within a month of launch. Its latest project Galaxy Apartments at Kurla offers 1BHK and 2BHK apartments at Rs 28 lakh and Rs 39 lakh respectively. Similarly Ajmera Realty’s ready-for-possession Bhakti Park project at Wadala is priced at Rs 7,000 per sq ft, which is equal to the rates of flats in the Goregaon-Borivali belt.
The concept of affordable housing is still alien to Mumbai as barely 29% of the projects at the Expo were priced below Rs 40 lakh. Flats in areas like Kurla-Mulund and Bandra-Borivali belt continue to remain high with the average being over Rs 70 lakh. The majority of affordable homes in far-flung suburbs in Thane, Dombivli, Kalyan, Mira Road and Virar. The report states since these areas suffer from power and water shortage, many buyers have said that they would have “to consider more affordable options cities such as Gurgaon, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata if prices are not corrected further.”
News Published Under: Mumbai | No Comments »