THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After a brief lull owing to post-demonetisation uncertainties, real estate sector in the city is seeing a revival. According to builders, bookings are back to normal and rosy days await them with banks planning liberalised loan schemes.
Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations (CREDAI) vice-president S N Raghuchandran Nair said the sector did not witness a crisis as anticipated by some consultants.
“There were reports that the apartment sales would see a 20 to 30 percent slump. But there wasn’t any such crisis in the state,” he said.
According to Nair, the sector faced a few sluggish weeks after the currency ban, but that was due to some unfounded predictions. “It was because the prospective buyers waited for some weeks hoping for a fall in prices which did not happen. Since genuine buyers cannot wait for long, they went ahead with their housing plans,” he said.
According to the CREDAI vice-president the post demonetisation fall in land prices will not see a cascading effect in the apartment market. “Land forms only a minor component in apartment projects and hence it won’t have a big effect,” he said.
SFS Homes chairman K Srikant said major builders are planning more projects since the situation is becoming more favourable for the real estate sector.
“The rise in deposits and banks’ decision to liberalise home loans offer big opportunities for builders. Apartments and villas would be an attractive option for genuine investors looking for returns,” he said.
According to Arun A Unnithan, executive director of Cordon Builders, the post-demonetisation factor lasted only in November. “Initially there was a drop in bookings, partly due to confusion among people. Our bookings were back to normal in December,” he said.
“Medium players in the apartment sector did not have any issue as their clientele are genuine buyers who rely on home loans and other legal sources of income. There may be a drop in the number of people who look for investment prospects in the sector,” he said.
According to the District Registrar Office, demonetisation effect was felt by the real estate in the district only in the months of November and December. “The slump in those months too was less compared to the sluggishness due to the uncertainty over valuation of flats early this fiscal,” an official said. “There has not been any significant rise or drop in land transactions at the major subregistrar offices in the last couple of months,” he added.