A look back at Delhi NCR's residential real estate

It has been a tough year for the property market. Faced with low sales volume, uncertainty and volatility, the market has bewildered both consumers and buyers. Housing demand from the NRI consumers has also been low.

However, not all was gloomy in the real estate sector. The year 2015 gave numerous bursts of positivity throughout the year, in a bid to help both fronts.

What ‘worked’ for the realty market in 2015?

We have summarised some announcements and declarations during this year which affected and will affect your property buying and selling decisions in the near future.

While some of them impact your property quests directly, others such as the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) policy rate cut will influence you indirectly.

The land pooling policy will make the city planned, developed and boost your residential options. While rise in the collection of property tax gives hopes for a regulated residential market in future.

Encapsulating the Delhi NCR residential market

The Delhi NCR market was under stress this year. Like the rest of the country, not many property transactions took place in 2015. However, the market saw a spear in end-user queries. Investors did not show much enthusiasm in making an investment this year. The reason behind why end-users queries did not result in action could be the unclear possession timelines. 

In cases where the delivery date was not a problem, the price bracket of the projects was very high. Some experts opine that the way out of such lockjam is to have a direct conversation with the builder and get a discount on the chosen property.

In order to boost sales volumes, developers resorted to deals and discounts during the festive season which lingered for some time. However, in comparison to last year’s sales volume, the figures were unmatchable.

The latest gimmick undertaken by the developer community is focussing on location and not project. Developers are buddying with their peers and forming groups to promote a location together. This way they hope to grab the attention of buyers in one location which will prove beneficial to everyone. Some such locations under the limelight are Sohna, Kundli, Mohali, (near the airport), etc.

The demand-supply mismatch has resulted in empty apartments in gated societies and flats in plotted developments.

Infrastructure-wise, the NCR market has to haul up their efforts in large quantum. Faulty infrastructure, irregular civic services and safety are some key problems dissuading buyers from investing in properties.

We have summed the important real estate related events which took place this year:

• DDA simplified the lift policy to assist people in installing lifts in old flats. It also tripled the floor area ratio (FAR) making the city go vertical
• CCEA approved interest subsidy hike to promote affordable housing
• Stricter norms for occupation certificates were introduced
• Operational guidelines for land pooling policy notified
• The Center invited investments from private developers in the housing sector to achieve the goal of ‘Housing for All by 2022’
• Haryana government constituted state and city-level task forces to monitor infrastructural development in Gurgaon by taking inputs from the RWAs
• Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) held a draw of plots for people displaced by the Dwarka Expressway project
• Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) allocated Rs 22 crore for the development of 100-km cycle tracks
• FAR in the Lutyens Bungalow Zone to go up from 20% to 33%
• Circle rates for agricultural land may go up to Rs 1.5 crore per acre
• The ‘Metro Pod’ project connecting Delhi and Manesar has been delayed but is expected to begin within 4 months
• About 3.5 lakh affordable homes to be created by 2016 in two villages of Ghaziabad
• The Centre included real estate agents in the Central Advisory Council through an Amendment
  
  
  Opportunities available to the stakeholders of Delhi NCR realty in 2015The real estate sector not just consists of buyers and developers, but a host of other stakeholders as well. Some of them include architects, material suppliers, facility management service providers, project management consultants, etc. We spoke with some of them and asked them how their year 2015 has been. Here’s what they have to say: 

Going forward, there are chances that the real estate market in the year 2016 will remain similar to this year. If such is the case, developers and government bodies will need to come up with drastic measures to build consumer confidence.

SOURCE: magicbricks.com