The latest reduction in interest rates has led to increased affordability, now at 3.79 times one’s annual income, and this is the best time to buy a home, according to the Gera Pune Residential Realty Report released on Wednesday.

The report is based on research which considered the top 20 developers in Pune in terms of brand name and repute. “Post-RERA and despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the share of the top and reputed developers in the market has increased. From July 2019 to June 2020, their sales account for almost 25 per cent of the total sales. The trend of large projects being launched continues. The number of projects with a size greater than 500 units has further increased to 138. This number almost doubled in the last six years,” the report added.

The total number of live projects being built has fallen significantly to 3,076 in June 2020 from 3,471 as on June 2019. Total inventory available for sale at 75,421 units as on June this year has moved up marginally, indicating that the average size of each project has increased.

Pandemic impact

The report mentions that sales offtake has reduced by 16 per cent over the last six months and new launches have fallen. “ This is a clear impact of the Covid-19 induced lockdown, as activity around new launches has been at a virtual standstill for four out of the last six months. The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a sharp drop in the replacement ratio, from 1.167 in Dec 2019 to 0.55 in Jun 2020 (more units have been sold than added in the last six months)” the report added.

While releasing the report, Rohit Gera, Managing Director, Gera Developments said, “An in-depth understanding indicates that the lockdown has had varying impacts on the different aspects of the business. Developers were able to defer launches of projects, thereby defer large financial commitments on account of project construction and launch expenses. As launches dropped by 55 per cent over 2019, sales, however, were at a standstill for a shorter period”.

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