If you are a potential home buyer on the prowl to land the best realty deal this festival season, prepare to be spoilt for choice. With mounting debt on their balance sheets affecting cash flow and reduced sales volumes, developers are going all out to attract buyers. Consumers are not biting though.

The festival season (October to December) is considered auspicious for home buying, and real estate developers are keen to battle the inventory pile-up with a slew of discounts.

From free 50-gram gold coins, home furnishings, half-kg pure silver Ganapati idols, free club membership offers, stamp duty waivers, bulk booking discounts and modular kitchen upgrades, freebies appear to have flooded the market. Developers are vying with each other to distinguish their projects through active marketing and advertising campaigns, aimed at attracting maximum enquiries, to push up sales.

But with interest rates reigning high and the ‘affordability’ factor still acting as a dissuasive factor, buyers are not biting the bait.

Prakash Kotian, GM, Marketing at the Ravi Group of Companies, said, “This festival season should see a dip in sales in Mumbai by 15 to 20 per cent from last year’s season, since no project approvals came through from the Government.”

National President of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India Lalit Kumar Jain said a delay in approvals this year has adversely impacted the launch calendar of developers this festival season. “Navratra is the biggest launch season for developers, but as there have been no approvals coming forth, realty project launches across India are set to dip about 40 to 60 per cent on a year-on-year basis from last year. Demand is also constrained owing to high interest rates and EMIs (equated monthly instalments), discouraging buyers,” he added.

“The festival period has not generated sales according to expectations as end-users have been battling pressures of high interest rates and inflation, which have been steadily impacting their purchasing capability, thereby compelling them to postpone purchasing decision,” added an analyst from real estate consultancy firm Cushman and Wakefield.

The latest spate of reforms initiated by the Finance Minister to ease credit flow to the realty industry and introduce FDI in retail are likely to have a positive change in the market, but unless the Government pushes through some approvals, there is unlikely to be any significant change on ground, Kotian says.

“As of now, it is a wait-and-watch situation for both developers and customers. There are a lot of schemes floating in the market and we will have to see their impact,” he added.

> manisha.jha@thehindu.co.in

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