Affordable housing played a crucial role in the real-estate sector’s growth
The real-estate sector experienced a streamlining this year due to adaptation of some of the basic changes in the sector with the implementation of RERA and GST. The stakeholders gradually adapted to demonetisation, RERA and GST and this had a combined effect on the real estate market and even changed the way of business in the country.
As compared to 2017, the housing sales saw an increase of up to 8% in the first three quarters of 2018. There was even a hike for the first time homebuyers in the region with the Government’s Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) scheme of “Housing for All 2022”. The real estate sector welcomed many new trends in 2018 including Affordable Housing which played a very significant role in the sector’s growth.
Buyers gained more confidence this year for investing in properties with RERA in place. This demand was seen in all the categories of real estate, be it newly launched, under construction or ready to move in units. Greater Noida led the way as it saw huge sales the whole year as well as during the festive season. Other regions including Yamuna Expressway, Noida, Noida-greater Noida Expressway saw a huge upsurge in conversions showing that any developer who has delivered in the past and are abiding by the guidelines of RERA will definitely sell good.
The Festive Season in addition has escalated the demand for properties thus enhancing the sales in the market by selling over 400 units in RNE. With a constant rise in the sales number in the last 18-20 months, the real estate market has attracted a lot of buyers and investors as compared to the low levels of new launches in the past 4-5 years. With major developments happening in the Delhi NCR region including widening of NH24, the longest elevated road connecting Delhi to Rajnagar Extension and opening of KMP Expressway, the market has seen an increased demand in the regions. After the operation of the Elevated Road, the conversions in Rajnagar extension increased by 40%.
This year’s festive season also came to the aid for the market with the sales hiking up to a great extent. To expand the sales, the status quo in RBIS policy rates in October and December came as a big relief to the real estate market as the unchanged rates positively upheld the confidence of the buyers and we can expect affirmation that the homebuyers will be investing in properties now.
“Ready to move in” properties endeavored prominence this year as RERA instructed that the builders should only focus on one project at a time. This increased the number of ready to move in units and even the buyers showed interest in these units. Not only this, construction of bridges and highways along with the imposition of new trends also succored to the growth of the sector.
Overall, this year has been the revival tenure for the real estate market across the country. There has been an improvement in the housing sales and has shown seriousness of the realty sector players on the completion of projects since the implementation of the subsidies under PMAY (Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana) and RERA. Transparency and accountability in the real estate has improved to a great extent with the introduction of RERA and GST; it has played a great role in restoring faith in the real estate market.
Ashok Gupta, CMD, Ajnara India Ltd., said, “2019 is expected to be another great year for the real estate sector and with the upcoming budget, it’s sure that there would favorable changes for the sector bringing in more trends and in addition to that the status of ‘Industry’ for the real estate sector and the incorporation of ‘Single Window Clearance’ system would be very much commended. Also, anticipated with the upcoming budget and easy reach through new metro lines, highways, roads and the emerging trends, there is probability for favorable changes in the sector making 2019 another great year for the real estate sector.”