THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A Month has passed since the high-rises in Maradu were demolished, but the dust has not settled on the state’s realty sector. Sale of apartments witnessed a record low this month even though other property deals were back to normal despite slowdown blues.
The number of apartment sales in February until Saturday was 509, a fall from the 776 during the same period last year, as per the data with the Registration Department.
However, property sales in general have picked up after hitting a record low in September last year. The number of deals in January this year was 75,739 while it was 59,563 last September.
Though the apartments in Maradu were demolished in the second week of January, 823 apartment registrations were recorded in that month.
CREDAI governing council member S N Raghuchandran Nair had a curious reason for this.
“Maradu demolition had a big impact on apartment sales in many ways. Denial of compensation to unregistered buyers in the demolished apartments forced several people to register their apartments bought unofficially. This may be the reason for the January sales,” he said.
“Certainly, the Maradu episode has created a scare among buyers of ready-to-occupy flats. This could be a reason for the drop in sales this month. Another reason could be the mass registration of properties in previous months in the wake of RERA’s launch. But this is temporary. The launch of the RERA in January will certainly boost the confidence of the buyers,” he added.
‘Maradu demolition has made many prospective buyers more conscious’
A Alexander opined that both Maradu and economic slowdown would have made an impact on the sales. Only a scientific study can bring out the reason, he said. RERA member Preetha Menon observed Maradu has made prospective buyers more conscious.
“In several cases we had come across people who bought apartments without checking the project documents. Now they’ve become conscious. RERA gets numerous queries from prospective buyers on how to find out a safe apartment,” she said.