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Atul Ahuja, an airline employee, has been searching for an apartment for the last three years. He even visited a property exhibition, organised by Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry from April 9 to 12. But, here again, he failed to zero in on his dream house.
"The minimum price quoted for an apartment was Rs 1.5 crore, which is above my budget," said Ahuja.
Even developers see signs of buyer wariness at the property exhibition. "There is not much interest among buyers this time. The number of stalls is also less," said an executive at one of the stalls.
The exhibition has been described by stock brokerages as "lacklustre'' and it reflects the mood of buyers and developers. Analysts said there was no buoyancy in buyers as well.
"Channel checks continued to indicate improving volumes in secondary markets, with weak offtake in primary markets. End-user interest has improved, while investor interest remains weak," Agarwal said. With majority of the projects on offer up for delivery after two years, he believes pick up in conversions was likely to be slower. "Over half of the surveyed projects (39) were scheduled for delivery post-2017," he added.
Property prices have declined 7-12 per cent since the October 2014 expo, a total dip of 15 per cent from peak levels. Although prices have not risen over the last six months, they continue to remain unaffordable. There were minimal discounts on offer, with the only visible ones being 10/90 and 80/20 schemes, that too without any bank loans.
However, Bandish Ajmera, chairman, exhibition committee, said the event was seeing good conversions. He admitted the scale of the exhibition was smaller than the previous one. But not a single stall was empty, he argued. He blames the delay in completion of projects on the sudden change in policy and hurdles in getting approvals.
