Indian real estate is steadily beginning to absorb the impact of several industry reforms like RERA, demonetization and GST among others. Several Indian metro cities have been seeing a steady recovery and sales volumes have improved greatly of late as well. The prices of property have either maintained their present levels or witnessed a correction as per several studies and reports. Average prices of property either went down or remained stagnant across most metro cities. Overall sales figures also increased in some real estate markets.
Sales volumes have gone up in major cities like Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore due to timely price corrections. Rental values have also gone up in Kolkata and Hyderabad to the tune of approximately 4% throughout the quarter between October and December, 2017 in comparison to a similar period in the year 2016. An increase of 3% has been recorded in Mumbai and Bangalore. Reports have also stated that markets like Mumbai and Delhi-NCR are heavy in terms of residential inventory and some popular residential locations in Noida, Gurgaon and Navi Mumbai witnessed price corrections.
Some of the most pioneering reforms were observed in case of the Indian real estate industry including policy changes. The first half of last year witnessed flagging sales numbers and the second half witnessed more contemplation on the part of all stakeholders. Homebuyers also waited to learn more about the full impact of RERA on prices of property and real estate developers were seen adjusting to the new regulations. RERA has ushered in a transformation of the market for restoring confidence of buyers in this quarter.
Sales volumes and overall property enquiries have also witnessed a major improvement across several cities. There was better real estate performance in major cities like Pune and Bangalore There is more clarity for buyers and the industry at large post GST and sales volumes should witness heady growth across several budget segments and categories. Reports also indicated that growth in prices would remain limited across several metro cities and heavy inventory led markets like Mumbai and Delhi-NCR will obviously witness several corrections in housing prices.
Prices are expected to go down a little more in some of the ultra-luxury and luxury categories this year on account of lower demand for projects in this segment. However, major corrections are not expected between January and March 2018 as per several reports. The supply in the primary realty market is currently lower due to slow RERA based registrations although it is going up steadily. The levels of fresh inventory may increase in the last few quarters due to a higher number of registrations and new project launches backed by more regulatory clarity.
