With criticism ranging from alleged corruption in the defence deals to slow moving economy, the government that came to the power with these two major planks of fighting corruption and accelerating the economic growth is under pressure. The government is, therefore, left with no option but to present a budget that gives a feel good factor.
While 2018 lived up to a fair number of expectations, there were a few misses too, particularly in the case of clarity on GST norms. Key highlights of 2018 were the creation of positive sentiments in the market by way of a robust office space absorption by emerging segments, as well as increase in the number of new launches and sales in the affordable housing sector.
In terms of price point luxury properties in Dubai are more attractive than any such option in Mumbai and Bangalore. Moreover, the kind of rental returns that are there in the gulf city is no match to any Indian city. Add to it tax-free returns and attractive capital appreciation and your cost & benefit analysis is heavily loaded in favour of benefits. Last, but not the list, is the quality of life in Dubai
As per Colliers International, the overall absorption for H1 2018 now stands at ~ 24 million sq ft. Bengaluru (Bangalore) continued to account for the highest share of absorption at 34% in Q2, followed by the National Capital Region (NCR) at 28%, Mumbai at 14%, Hyderabad and Chennai at 8% each, Pune at 6%, and Kolkata at 2%.
No one is talking about the need for developing satellite cities, at least as of now. This is not because there is any lack of vision with regards to ever increasing urbanisation, but so much virgin territories are there to be developed that the priority is to develop those pockets first. The load on land has also not reached to an alarming level were the infrastructure crumbles, as witnessed in other major cities across the country.
A friendly budget is always on the wish list of everyone. Across the industries the stakeholders, including the consumers, have more or less the same expectations with the Finance Minister to call it a friendly budget. But in the context of the Indian real estate a friendly budget for the sector does not necessarily mean a homebuyer friendly budget.
The transition of the real estate market has changed the dynamics of the sector completely. After the advent, multiple policies and regulation of the real estate industry has seen a paradigm shift with systemic checks and streamlined process.
A closer look at some of the leading property markets of the country, like Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore, clearly suggest that the market is poised for an upswing in the next few years. More importantly, it is not just the analysts but also the home-buyers who are today; ready to bet high on the long term growth story of the property market in these leading cities.
What makes Mumbai a global real estate market to bet on? There are many USPs of the city property market to make it a global property market, like luxury landscape of the city; its positioning as a job market; social life of Mumbai; investment in the city; appreciation potential; and insulation against price crash. Mumbai is one of those markets that have also weathered the slowdown challenges without crash; not even New York, London or Dubai have this distinction.
There are very few case studies where the developers have flocked out to cities on sheer promise without registering their presence in the four metro cities. However, such migration to magnet territory is today quite visible in Gujarat where the developers from other states are increasingly flocking, most notably in the city of Ahmedabad.