MANGALURU: Despite the lockdown and economic slowdown, the real estate sector is showing signs of revival in Mangaluru. Bookings and property registrations are yet to pick up, but builders and financial institutions are seeing a spurt in the number of enquiries for residential flats and home loans in the past few weeks, which stakeholders term as “encouraging”, and hope the sector is on the path to recovery.
Builders and bankers attribute the rise in enquiries mainly to the return of a huge number of NRIs from the Gulf countries, Mumbai and other places, who are planning to buy flats and settle down in the coastal city. Reduction in home loan interest, extension of loan subsidy under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana for one more year, and the prospect of property value going up in the coming months due to rise in construction and labour costs, are also said to have prompted these enquiries.
Pushaparaj Jain, a builder, said a majority of enquiries are for affordable housing – apartments costing between Rs 25 lakh to Rs 50 lakh per unit. “Apart from NRIs and others who have returned to the city, there are people who want to invest in flats as interest rates on fixed deposits have gone down,” he reasoned.
Many builders said this is the right time to buy property as prices are set to rise by the end of the calendar year. The cost of cement and steel has gone up and labour cost has shot up by 50-70%, after 75% of migrant labourers returned to their native states. All these burdens will be passed on to customers after a few months.
Kavita, sub-registrar, Mangaluru Rural, said that registration of flats may go up once the reduction in registration fee announced by the government is implemented. The fee has gone down by 3 per cent for properties valued below `25 lakh, and 2 per cent for properties costing less than `35 lakh.