Haryana Government would like to address it as pro-farmer move, the real estate sector would like to hail it as investment friendly and others within the built environment of real estate would like to call it a step that would bring to the market more supply and hence affordability.
A few may have succeeded but most of the developers have failed to position themselves right during the slowdown. In the process Track2Realty finds that the brand realty has taken a severe beating, losing the trust of both the end-users and the investors. The brand positioning that differentiates between the two different realty companies is today negligible with developers’ focus to sell. That, unfortunately, is not working for them and commanding premium over the brand reputation today is a far cry. Our team speaks to a cross section of developers, analysts and brand experts who may differ with each other but nearly all agree that sector has to come out of the Catch 22 situation.
In the real estate market consumer activism in India may have been high in recent times, but consumer awareness is pretty low. Most of the first time home buyers even fail to differentiate between what they want and what they need in an apartment, forget about their knowledge with regard to legalities and necessary checklist. The mismatch between developers’ offerings and buyers’ perception is a critical missing link leading to an impression gaining ground that the developer has not fulfilled his promise.
Gaurav Kapoor booked a flat in one of the newly launched projects of Delhi-NCR in early 2007. He was promised the flat would be ready for possession within three years with a grace period of six months. To play safe Gaurav even opted for a construction linked payment plan to the developer but six years have gone and he is yet to get his flat and every time he has approached the developer, various reasons for delay have been cited from macro economic conditions to funding woes and approval delays on part of the government agencies.
From being the governance wild child to maturing into a market influencer, India’s real-estate sector has transformed in the past decade, with a paradigm shift from family owned businesses to corporates along with a few companies listing on stock exchanges. The change began with the government opening doors to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in 2005 and then welcoming the next wave of stability as corporate houses brought image restoration for the sector. Led by corporate entities, realty companies soon adopted corporate governance wherein transparency began to trickle down into the system as a norm slowly.
“How long can a sector survive which is borrowing at 48 per cent from private lenders to serve the interest of previous debt raised at much lower rate,” asks a banker. His concern is not without valid reasons. Developers experimented with all funding options but still many of them are now being forced to seek other sources of funding which not only comes at a significantly higher cost but also where the source of fund is unregulated.
Over 75 per cent of the total 3,540 live projects with total outstanding investments worth over Rs 14 lakh crore attracted by the real estate sector across India remained non-starter as of financial year 2014-15, noted a just-concluded study by apex industry body ASSOCHAM.
Some key findings that indicate the aspiration quotient and standing of the Indian real estate:
88% Indians find real estate is still best asset class to invest
72% believe pre-launch or early stage of construction is best bargain
78% maintain upcoming locations give better returns than prime localities
84% homebuyers are sulking & repent their home buying decision
46% homebuyers have too serious issues with the developer to reconcile
The meteoric growth of e-commerce in India in recent years was broadly seen as a threat to physical retail. Seemingly bearing this out, ASSOCHAM states that e-commerce has grown at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of ~30%, while retail sector growth has been at 15% CAGR over the last five years.
DLF has received Sword of Honour from British Safety Council for 06 buildings in Delhi-NCR towards best practice in Occupational Health & Safety. DLF Malls are the only malls in Asia and Middle East which have received prestigious 5-Star Excellence Certification and sword of Honour from British Safety Council.