KOCHI: Since June this year, when he put up his two-bedroom flat at Kaloor here costing Rs 35 lakh for sale, M D Mohammed has been awaiting buyers. Though a few persons evinced interest in the flat, they apparently didn’t take matters forward.
“It’s the real estate agents who mainly approach me as buyers. They are ready to make an advance payment but are asking for a time gap of six-eight months before making the entire payment.
It seems genuine buyers, looking for a home for actual utilisation rather than as an investment option, are adopting a wait-and-watch strategy believing that the price will go down further in the coming months. Expecting a further fall in price, buyers are delaying their purchase,” Mohammed said.
Though the real estate sector in Kerala has been on a low in the last six months, industry watchers say there are some positive signs, with sales rising 50 per cent during July-August compared to the March-May period.
“It’s not picking up fast as many would have hoped. But home sales have been picking up in the last two months compared to the first quarter of 2019,” said Ravi Shankar T N, Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (CREDAI) Kochi secretary, who is the managing director of Prime Meridian Infrastructure Pvt Ltd. A senior executive of a bank said they have been getting customers for home loans.
“It’s a fact that there is no leap in the number of customers.
"But we are getting a steady number of new customers. People are only opting for real estate projects looking at specific localities. Earlier, there was a rush for real estate projects considering them as an investment option,” the executive said.