There is an eerie silence in the realty market and there is gradual fall in the fortunes of the sector over the last couple of years has failed to halt the downlisde, despite the big announcements and promises by the government on reforms across sectors including ease of doing business and Income Tax deduction of additional amount of Rs50,000/- could not revive or stop the fall.
Even though expectations were high, the industry has only witnessed the situation worsening with time. Unsold inventory has gone up amid weak demand and few project launches across the country.
It’s not just the developers who are under stress. Brokers and customers, too, are facing the heat.
The Major cities are under pressure and the recent encouragement for the SMART CITIES gave a death blow to the downslide of realty market The last year also seems to have missed out on the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill. While the regulations were framed and the current government later decided to review the provisions of the Bill and even as it has approved some amendments, the Bill awaits clearance.
The government also failed to make any significant progress on the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act. Even though the Bill is critical to the government’s vision of building better infrastructure, affordable housing projects and smart cities, it now awaits recommendations of the joint committee of Parliament that is expected in the forthcoming monsoon session.
In the meantime, project launches by real estate developers are also on a decline and the unsold inventory is on a rise. According to a report, unsold inventory across 14 leading cities across the country stands at 7.6 lakh units. The inventory pile up has been led primarily by Mumbai Metropolitan Region and the National Capital Region.
Apart from the residential segment, the retail space and office space market is also struggling to take off. While there has been some take-off in the office space market in Bangalore on account of demand from the IT sector, other major markets have been weak. On the retail front, experts say that the e-commerce players have impacted the brick-and-mortar retailers in a big way.
Real estate stakeholders are now pinning their hopes on the government’s flagship Smart City project and are hopeful that the Centre will soon kick-start spending on the same which may lift the overall economic activity and thereby the sector.