Pune pips metros in realty race

When it comes to residential project construction activities in major metropolis, Pune is a clear winner. As per a report brought out by Liases and Foras — a real estate research firm — construction activity for residential housing in the last two years has witnessed a sustained growth in Pune, while signs of a significant slowdown have been observed in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore. Reasons: exorbitant property prices, less demand and stringent government approval procedure.

In fact, the residential projects construction activities are directly linked to and indicative of property sale. According to Pankaj Kapoor, managing director of Liases and Foras, “Developers are not launching and constructing as many projects as they used to earlier. For, most of them have sold out their present under-construction stock to investors after taking the token amount. But the projects could not be completed on time due to many reasons, including limited demand owing to exorbitant property rates, inflation, high EMI, etc,” he said.

In the past two years, when the market has been routinely flooded with investors, the Pune property market has witnessed significant growth. “The primary reasons for this sustained growth is that the Pune market is purely consumer-driven, and not investor-driven. It is not a highly inflated market as the other metros and even the appreciation ratio is low. This does not hike up property rates immediately and frequently and is a good sign which needs to be maintained,” Kapoor added.

Further, nearly 1,147 residential projects have been delayed in six metros — Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore, added Kapoor.

Others like Manohar Shroff, general secretary of the Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry (Navi Mumbai), are putting the onus of spurning construction of residential properties on the state government. According to Shroff, the snail pace of construction activities exists despite builders evincing keen interest. “We’ve been regularly submitting the proposals, but the local coporations are not approving them on time, with several proposals struck down without any valid reasons. As a result, the construction activities has come to a grinding halt,” he said. Demanding that the government should resolve the issue and start approving the projects immediately, he added, “Or else the slow construction pace will result in lesser housing stock being available in future, thereby causing a price rise.”