2016, the year of disruption for Indian Real Estate
By Mr. Rohit Gera, Managing Director, Gera Developments & VP, CREDAI – Pune Metro
2016 has been a turbulent year for real estate. The industry faced headwinds in terms of slow sales which was then followed by a reduction in project launches. Interest rates that were expected to come down stayed stubbornly high. The passing of the Real Estate Regulatory Act (RERA) added more confusion to the industry. This is been a year when judicial intervention for non – delivery by developers has been at its highest.
The demonetization move by the government has further added challenges to the industry. Unsubstantiated comments and wild predictions of price falls have led many customers to defer their home purchase decisions. This too has added further stress to the developers.
Looking forward one expects that the government will take actions to back up the move of demonetization. This may further create some amount of issues for some developers. However, the much awaited reduction in interest rates as well as benefits expected in the budget should help revive the industry over the next few months.
Looking forward with the elimination of black money from the industry that is likely to happen, as well as the implementation of the RERA a large number of fly by night operators will be forced to leave the sector leaving the industry in the hands of professional developers with a long term vision for the industry and clear customer focus. This will ultimately be in the interest of the home buyer in the medium to long term.
