Unreal estate: Is the overgrown realty bubble set to burst in Hyderabad?

The number of unsold housing units has risen from 4,037 in H1 of 2020 to 11,918 in H1 2021
Representational image (File photo)
Representational image (File photo)

HYDERABAD:  After a boom in Hyderabad’s real estate sector over the last six years, the sharp increase in land and apartment prices have made them unaffordable for many people, leading to a slump in registration of plots and flats. Buyers are waiting for prices to cool off and many who were earlier keen on buying land and houses as a means of investment, are now wondering if the market’s getting a bit too unreal.    

A definitive pointer to this discomfiting scenario is Knight Frank’s Residential Market Report for the first half (H1) of 2021. Compared to H1 of 2020, when the number of unsold housing units were 4,037, the figure has risen to a worrying 11,918 in H1 2021. Which brings forth the question: Is the real estate bubble set to burst in Hyderabad?  The report points out that though Hyderabad’s residential market recorded a growth in terms of demand as well as supply in H1 2021 compared to H1 2020, in terms of the quarterly trend, launches and sales went down sequentially in Q2 (second quarter) 2021.

Astronomical land prices in the meantime are leaving prospective buyers singed and scorched. 
For instance, in Gandipet, the market value is `17,000 per square yard as per the revised prices set by the government. However, land owners are demanding more than `1 lakh per square yard. In Saroornagar, especially at Sagar Road, facing Champapet, owners are demanding `1.5 lakh against the government’s revised market value of `28,000 per square yard.

CV Reddy, Director of Aparna Constructions and Estates, says the real estate sector has slowed down in the past few months across Hyderabad city. “Land rates have peaked and increase in registration charges has thrown a wet blanket over prospective buyers. Increase of stamp duty charges by 1.5 per cent would impact the buyers hard during the registration process. Only those units in the range of `50 lakh to `1.10 crore have some demand, while sales above these segments are not showing a positive trend at all,” Reddy says. P4

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