The Gera Development’s ‘Pune Residential Realty Report ‘for January to July 2019 released on Tuesday highlighted that construction activity in the city has picked up by 3 per cent in the last six months after two years of decline.

On account of a reduction in new project launches since June 2017, the total inventory has been contracting. There is finally a 3 per cent increase in total inventory to 3,01,731 units in June from 2,92,842 in December 2018, suggesting that the market has expanded in the last six months in terms of construction activity. The inventory available for sale currently stands at 80,062 apartments and is virtually unchanged over the last one year. Inventory for sale has reduced to 26.53 per cent since the peak at 34.29 per cent in December 2015.

New launches

There is an overall increase of 56 per cent in new launches which have hit a 36-month high — a sign of optimism amongst the developers, the report stated.

Market prices have broadly remained flat over the last six months after witnessing an erosion of 11 per cent from peak levels seen in December 2015. In December 2018 average market price was ₹4,582 per sq ft which has gone to ₹4,555 per sq ft (a reduction of 0.58 per cent). The average Pune market price is at a five-and-half-year low.

Rohit Gera, Managing Director, Gera Developments said, “The Pune real estate market seems to have finally turned the corner and has staged a comeback putting in a good performance after a prolonged period of stress”. He added that the Budget provides for an increased deduction of ₹1.5 lakh (in addition to the existing ₹2 lakh) for interest paid towards purchasing a new home. The benefit of the additional deduction is substantial. The fact that the benefit is valid only till March 2020 will motivate people to accelerate their purchase decision, this will lead to a clearing of the inventory in the sub-₹45 lakh segment.

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