Tepid festivity

Geetu Vaid

Festive season cheer that has been eluding the developers for the past three years may not be there this year too. Traditionally, the first half of this season that continues till New Year, is till Diwali and maximum offers are also lined up for buyers during this time. Despite the claims  of   developers to the contrary, sale volumes have remained low so far.  Though the final take on festive season sales in 2018 will be clear after the 2018 Q4 figures are out a couple of months down the line, property consultants in the region maintained that the situation remained grim for the residential sector, especially so in Tier II and III towns in Punjab and Haryana. 

Sukhdev Singh, a builder and owner of AGI Infra Ltd in Jalandhar, maintained, “The festive season this year did not evince as good response as it used to get five-six years back. There was less than 10 per cent spike in demand during this time here.” The builder, who has four ongoing housing projects in the periphery of Jalandhar added that NRI customers have been missing from the Doaba market and the sale volumes remained dismal.  Ludhiana, the commercial capital of Punjab also saw just a trickle of sales and secondary market saw a correction of up to 25 per cent in the end-user driven market. Dalbir Singh, a Ludhiana-based dealer lamented the lacklustre business even during the festive season this year. “Queries are there but the conversion rate is very low  as buyers seem to be waiting for prices to fall further and young buyers are no longer interested in buying during the auspicious months. Now festive season is just like other months of the year”, he added. Long delayed residential projects in the city have also dampened the enthusiasm of buyers for new colonies and integrated city projects. 

A virtual absence of new launches in the past couple of months also stands testimony to the low sentiment in the market. “Poor sales in the existing and ongoing projects have stunted further growth of the realty sector. The end user is also not willing to park his hard-earned money in a new project and developers have little funds to launch new ones”, says Amritsar-based property dealer Bakshish Singh. Mohali in the Chandigarh tricity has been an exception so far with over 15 per cent increase in the number of new registries during the auspicious period. “A huge ready-to-move-in inventory and good infrastructure have kept the buyer interest alive in this city. Even commercial property sales have seen un uptick of 15 to 20 per cent in the past couple of months”, says Sanyam Dudeja, Director Jubilee Group.

Even in the NCR town of Karnal, the situation is no different. According to Chandraprakash Kathuria Chairman, Ultratech Township Developers having Royal Residency project in the city, the festive season sales have seen no spike and remained average this year. “In Karnal much of sales are happening in Sectors like 32, 29 etc, private colonies have seen low sale volumes”, says Kathuria. 

Overall too NCR’s report card also remains poor as it has shown a 12 per cent drop in sales in July-September quarter. According to data provided by rating and research firm Anarock new supply in NCR was restricted to a mere 3,770  units during the festive season in October 2018. However, at the same time the unsold stock in NCR has gone down by 9 per cent in the past 12 months, which reveals build up of positive sentiment among buyers — that surely is something to cheer about.

Party poopers

• Delay in the completion of projects has shaken buyer confidence. 
• No substantial discounts and festive offers by developers to lure customers. 
• Tedious clearance procedure serving as an impediment in completion of projects
• More buyers looking for RERA-approved projects to avoid hassles in future.
• The overall liquidity crunch