BENGALURU | MUMBAI: Indian real estate sector is seeing a encouraging growth across assets class with returning confidence in the market. While, corporate occupies and institutions investors are seen actively investing and leasing office space in the country. . Residential and retail market is seeing fresh lease of life with sales and investments making a comeback.
According to a recent report by JLL India, total investment in the real estate of the country for the January – June 2018 period was recorded at $3,616 million (Rs 24,011 crores), majority of which was in the IT & Commercial sector. Of the total investment, IT & Commercial sector attracted close to $2,000 million (Rs 13,151 Crores) in the same period.
“There has been a paradigm shift in the momentum of real estate witnessed in the first half of 2018. All aspects of the sector – residential, retail, office and investments, have seen healthy increase in demand. What we note specifically is the quantum of this rise which has increased significantly, ushering a revival of the sector backed by strong fundamentals,” said Ramesh Nair, Chairman CII Realty & Infrastructure Conclave and CEO & Country Head, JLL India.
The first half of 2018 also saw corporate leasing activity rise by a 54% in H1 2018 as compared to the same time last year. Companies leased around 8 million sq. ft more space as compared to same time last year taking the total gross space leased in the H1 2018 of the year to about 24 million sq ft. Cities that contributed the most to this growth were Bengaluru and NCR, with a share of 26% each in the gross leasing volumes during this period.
“The leasing is at par with last year with strong demand from BFSI and IT sector. We are 100% leases,” said said RMZ MD (executive management) Thirumal Govindraj.
The H1 2018 was also significant in terms of sales velocity for the residential sector, which picked pace, recording a rise of 25% year – on – year in H1 2018. This can be attributed to two large factors, firstly returning buyers’ confidence on account of implementation of RERA in most states and stable capital values that started to show an upward trend.
“The intention of RERA is to make sure there is no delay. We are seeing good demand for residential properties across price points,” said Niranjan Hiranandani, President, NAREDCO and Chairman of the Hiranandani group.
The Indian retail market is also experiencing a new lease of life with interest from investors returning to the market.
“We are see a growth in leasing activities from both international and domestic brands across all our malls.
What should a homebuyer do?
As a new buyer in the re-sale market, make sure that the promoters of the project you are buying into have received the completion/occupancy certificate. For fresh bookings, the one single piece of information that can prove to be the saviour to a large extent will be the project’s permanent registration number provided by the state’s Regulatory Authority. Ask for it even before you make a visit to the project site.
The litmus test will occur when the builder is able to deliver the project as per the timeline submitted to RERA. It is still few years away. There are enough provisions within the Act to compensate the homebuyers in case of a default or delayed delivery which all remains to be tested. In the meantime, state authorities need to take stringent steps in order to restore the confidence of the buyers. Making the builders upload relevant and complete information on the state RERA website about the the projects is just one small step towards it.