Voices: the year that was

Demonetisation and the new regulations for the real estate sector may have briefly halted the march, especially of the residential property market but in the long run these will help the sector grow in a much more evolved manner. The impact of demonetisation is a transient one and the economy will undergo structural changes for the first three quarters of 2017. — Shishir Baijal, Knight Frank

A Pan-India trend that emerged in 2016 was that a higher number of units were sold every quarter than new project launches in the same period. A slowing number of new launches helped reduce the inventory overhang and ready to move in inventory was the preferred choice of the homebuyers. — Amit Modi, Director, ABA Corp and Vice President CREDAI Western UP.

The year 2016 turned out to be a reasonable one from the perspective of real estate in general and Omaxe in particular. Demonetisation is likely to bear fruit for overall economy in the medium and long term — interest rate as well as rate of personal taxation may decline over the next few months. That in turn should boost consumption and investment and thus augur well for real estate sector particularly affordable segment in tier II and III cities. Demonetisation is also likely to bring in greater deal of transparency and along with RERA; it will boost the confidence of consumers in the real estate sector, which would help the sector grow at a decent pace, more so in places like New Chandigarh, Lucknow and Ludhiana among others. — Rohtas Goel, CMD, Omaxe Ltd.

This year was particularly good for the Tricity market as volumes picked up in both residential and commercial markets. The announcement on developing Chandigarh as a Smart City, the opening of the international airport in Mohali and the construction of the 200-ft ring road that strategically connects Panchkula, Zirakpur, Mohali and Kharar were the high point of 2016. Prices in the Tricity market remained largely stable in sharp contrast to Tier I cities, which witnessed a steep fall in prices post-demonetisation. Largely driven by end users, Tier 2 cities like Mohali and Chandigarh escaped the fallout of demonetisation on account of their small pocket size. The volumes of sales have gone up both in the ready to move and affordable segments. More than launching new projects, real estate developers in the Tricity were focused on selling off the huge unsold possession-ready inventory stocked with them, the response to which has been quite encouraging, indicating that the demand-supply equation is in correction mode. Legislations like RERA and tax reforms like GST boosted the market sentiment. The cut in repo rate by 50 base points this year, accompanied by reduction in interest rates by banks, created more demand, especially in the residential space. This year's gains will carry on in 2017, enabling the real estate market of the Tricity to perform even better. — Tejinder Pal Setia, Chairman, Mona Townships Pvt Ltd.

If we say 2016 was a subdued year for Indian realty, most among us would agree. We could hardly see any traction during Navratras and Diwali, which is considered to be the most peak time for transactions. Whatever transactions in group housing segment were seen, were from the end users looking for their dream homes. Majority of them were from consumer durables, PSU & IT sectors. — Kaushal Nagpal, Co-Founder, BookingKAR concludes

With all the unnecessary negative hype about the slowdown in the sector; at a macro level, 2016 was actually much better than many years before it. This year we saw a realty sector favoured Union Budget which was later well complimented by the passage of RERA and GST. RBI played its part seemingly well by reducing the repo rate by 50 basis points this year. Banks also gave some cushion this year by reducing the interest rates by a fraction margin twice this year. All the gains from this year will be carried forward to 2017 that will allow the sector to perform even better. — Rajesh Goyal, Vice President CREDAI-Western U.P. & MD, RG Group 

2016 might well go down in the history books as a watershed year for the Indian real estate industry, with huge economic and regulatory reforms attempting to alter the fundamental functioning of the sector. These reforms, which are likely to consolidate the realty industry making it more organised, will also lead to lower investments, increased input costs, and longer deal closure cycles in the short run, as investors and end-users would like to gain more clarity before making the decision.  However, in the long-run, they will also change the way the real estate sector operates, aligning it to international standards which will also help in raising fresh funds. — Ashish jerath, Emaar

2016 has been the unconventional trailblazer for the real estate sector with several new reforms and surprises. While the new policy announcements brought some cheer, the positive outlook was balanced by demonetisation and no new rate cuts. The challenges before the sector are multiple ranging from policy uncertainty to liquidity crisis, but multiple initiatives for uplifting the mood of the buyers might lead to a revival. — Brijesh Bhanote, CMO- Paras Buildtech 

The industry faced headwinds in terms of slow sales which was then followed by a reduction in project launches. Interest rates that were expected to come down stayed stubbornly high. The passing of the Real Estate Regulatory Act (RERA) added more confusion to the industry.  This is been a year when judicial intervention for non- delivery by developers has been at its highest.— Rohit Gera, Managing Director, Gera Developments  & VP, CREDAI – Pune Metro

Although there was no monumental change in terms of buyer’s sentiments in 2016, notable improvements were observed in numerous areas such as rising influence of NRI investors in Indian real estate, surge in demand for international properties & uptick in institutional investment. Changing lifestyle & expansion in young buyer base is making smaller units, one of the most sought after asset class. — Kanika Gupta Shori, COO and Co-founder, Square Yards