Real estate market in city going strong: survey

News Posted - 2010-04-08

The economic slowdown might have hampered the investment in real estate across the country but in Pune it seems that the investor demand is higher compared with other major cities in the country.

According to a proprietary real estate survey carried out across eight cities in the country homebuyers are primarily interested in mid-income housing in Pune.

The survey was carried out by ICICI Securities among 2,697 online, 6,767 offline buyer respondents as well as 57 property consultants.

As per the survey, Indian homebuyers are cautiously optimistic about the property prices.

They are primarily interested in mid-income housing (Rs. 2-5 million) and are conservative on ticket size. End-user demand is higher in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore, while investor demand is higher in Ahmedabad and Pune.

About 53 per cent brokers have seen increased queries in affordable housing and 44 per cent have seen drop in queries for the premium segment.

The under-construction supply in 8 major cities is around 378 million square feet, of which 64 million square feet is ready; current annual demand stands at around 372 million square feet according to the survey. The per-month inventory for Mumbai and Bangaluru is the lowest and for Chennai & Ahmedabad is the highest.

Finished inventory is higher in Ahmedabad, Hyderabad & Kolkata. Except in Pune, Bangaluru and Hyderabad, prices in other cities have reached earlier highs or beyond,” said the survey.

The survey says that rental market is stable and trending upwards – 53 per cent of tenants have seen rentals increasing in the past 12 months. The average increase in rentals has been 4.7 per cent. Indian household spends 12 per cent of its monthly income on rentals on average, it said.

Source: Indianexpress.com 6/4/10