The Hindu Business Line : `No slowdown in demand for commercial properties'

Mumbai June 16 Mumbai-based realty major Hiranandani Group has said real estate prices in the non-commercial segment have hit a plateau and housing stock sales are down.

The Managing Director of Hiranandani Group, Mr Niranjan Hiranandani, told Business Line there was no slowdown on the commercial side and on the contrary, there was a perceptible rise in demand over the last two to three months.

"We have done an unbelievable scale of leasing with top-notch companies at prices that are substantially higher than what was earlier," he said.

Mr Hiranandani said the drop in housing segment sales were between five to seven per cent, if sales this May were benchmarked to the corresponding period last year.

However, he said it was only the pace of price rise that had slackened and a stabilisation had come about.

"Last year, we saw a 30 per cent increase in prices every month - month on month we saw a rise of Rs 50 to Rs 100 per sq foot, I think that has hit a plateau." On decrease in sales in the housing segment, he said it was just that people were postponing their purchase, hoping for a better deal later. The demand was very much there, he said.

Mr Hiranandani said there was no perceptible dip in demand and that of late, the average age of takers for his property had come down from 42 to 30.

Buyers today want bigger apartments and were willing to take on higher EMIs.

On the strategic shift from metros to second and third-tier cities, he said the focus was on building townships and the company had evolved a very successful model over the years for replication.

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