Is it a good time to make a property deal?

Updated: Friday, September 20, 2013, 15:13 [IST]

When buying the first property to live-in, traditional outlook says that one should not consider the price factor. However, in a market scenario, when real-estate experts foresee no price rise in the near future, deferring your decision might do no harm to the interested party and instead can favour him/her.

However, if you have already zeroed on a property and do not intend to push your purchase further, you can demand discounts and developers would be too interested in offering you lucrative offers as the sector is witnessing huge inventory and low demand.

Other factors that suggest you to hold a wait and watch policy while considering purchase in the sector are :

Inflation :

As increase in general price level of nearly all commodities has already disturbed a family budget, individuals considering an investment into a property can prolong their decision for sometime now. Also, as the slide in the rupee has increased the cost of construction equipment and technology that developers import, delivery of infrastructure projects is anticipated to delay.

Red flagging of 80: 20 lending scheme:

The scrapping of the lending scheme for housing property by RBI, which until sometime seemed to be an incentive for the home loan buyers and supported the sector immensely in boosting sales, has hurt the developer community severely. The move is expected to result in price correction of the properties as property developers will resort to some or other measures to boost sagging sales.

In case you intend to make the deal for investment purpose time is certainly not good:

As analyst in the sector, see capital appreciation in the sector only to the tune of 5-8% that too in the time frame of 1-2 years, time is not good for property purchase as an investment option. With price stability witnessed in the sectors on account of huge inventory across markets, time is certainly not suitable if you are considering the purchase taking home loan either as it will only prove to be distressful.

Low demand in the sector also offers no room for price appreciation. So, even if you make the purchase at the current levels, you'll not realize substantial gains from the sector that has provided high return on investment in comparison to gold and equity.

Home loan rates have again trended upwards:

Banks have again increased lending rates on home by 25- 35 basis points. So, if it seems to be a considerable burden on your pocket, you can certainly wait further for cracking the deal at fairly reasonable rates.

Indeed a best time for NRIs :

With the rupee seen sliding low over the past couple of months, NRIs should certainly make a deal without any delay. Even, developers assuming that funds can be majorly deployed by NRI community are luring them by offering freebies and other incentives. Also, analysts expect that full advantage of the situation could be realized only if NRIs make full transaction amount payment upfront.

Some real estate experts however advocate that the good time for property purchase has begun with the festive season and will remain until March 2014. Because, once the general elections are over, there will be only little opportunity that the sector would offer. And the proposed land acquisition bill and taxation regime would weigh heavily on real estate developers who would eventually pass on the cost to customers in order to sustain their business.

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