SBI home loan utsav from today
State Bank of India (SBI) is organizing a three day…
State Bank of India (SBI) is organizing a three day…
Home is the most integral part of an individual, who since his birth and childhood, dreams to have a living space of his own in India. Once in a lifetime investment requires loan to accomplish it, and that is how the home loans comes into the scheme of things.
While buying a house two out of three Indians (70.6%) demand a simpler, more understandable home loan procedure.
The industry data of faster recovery and record home sales conceal more than it intends to reveal. The rosy outlook fails to address the fact that this is a K-shaped recovery where a handful of large developers with sound financials have grown at the cost of the large universe of the developers. More importantly, the sales registration data doesn’t differentiate between primary market sale and distress sale in the secondary market.
2022 won’t be an easy year for the average Indian home buyer in terms of making a conscious decision of buying a house. The fundamentals of the market and macroeconomic outlook indicates 2022 could be even more challenging than 2021 for more than one reason. The rising input cost of construction has put a serious question mark over the feasibility of the business in a price sensitive market. Many of the developers with thin profit margins are facing a catch-22 where the input cost hike is compelling for escalation but the demand side is not ready to absorb the hike.
I often get amused when I get into the details of the industry survey that shouts at the top of its voice – “All is Well”. Some of these industry reports claiming the business to be witness to higher consumer sentiment are based on the feedback of connected parties like developers, banks, financial institutions and private equity players. All in all, it’s a family cycle where everyone is desperate to beg, borrow or steal for sale. The most important stakeholder – the home buyer – whose sentiment is being tracked is better left out in this mutual appreciation club of vested interests.
A record low household savings, double digit unemployment, and rising inflation, has added to the harsh reality of Indian home buyers’ high Debt to Income (DTI) ratio. The Covid induced financial hardships have indeed wreaked havoc with many of the Indian home buyers. Despite of the advantages of lower interest rates, their DTI ratio has suddenly shot up beyond what could be termed as manageable level.
Budget after budget the industry voices across the built environment of the Indian real estate echo the causes & concerns of the supply side – builders. On the eve of the Union Budget 2021-22, it is imperative to address the issues that affect the demand side – buyers. Failing to address the buyers issues, would be detrimental to the revival of the sector which, in turn, is critically linked to the revival of the economy at large.
In the financial sector, housing finance is relatively a new concept as the government took interest in the last two decades to diminish the housing problem in India. However, the participation of banks and financial institutions in the housing credit sector has swelled and the sector itself has evolved over the years, fuelled also by the concurrent evolution in government regulations in the sector and real estate industry as a whole.
The good news is that the Indian home buyers do understand that the lockdown post the Coronavirus was neither in the hands of the builders nor could have been anticipated. They hence don’t object to the period of six months being declared to be Force Majeure. The bad news is that the home buyers across the country feel the government’s declaration of Force Majeure is not in accordance with the law of natural justice. Track2Realty Online Poll finds that the home buyers are demanding equal leeway in the housing market.