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Realtors in the state are pinning hopes on the ensuing festive season for revival of sales in the sluggish real estate sector.
Real estate developers are re-adjusting their construction patterns to the affordable housing segment for tapping the opportunities in the category which has largely remained untouched. The cost of the housing units in the segment range from Rs 8 lakhs to Rs 15 lakhs.
“We were earlier focusing on high-end customers, now the emphasis has shifted to budget range which accounts for about 70 per cent of the demand. The queries for low range houses, particularly for studio apartments within the city limit, is on the rise from bachelors working in IT and other sectors,” said D S Tripathy, joint secretary, Credai (Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India).
Realtors say, the incentives promised in the new affordable housing scheme of the state government are luring the players to shift to the affordable housing segment as the demand for the higher segment is staring at saturation.
Following the setbacks from certain recent developments such as the weakening of rupee against dollar and the recent crackdown on the chit fund companies, realtors are hopeful of better sales in the forthcoming festival season.
There are also hopes that the non-resident Indian (NRIs) will invest in the sector due to weakened rupee and the negativity in the market, created by some unscrupulous chit fund companies which had strayed into real estate sector, will gradually fade away, Tripathy added.
The city police has already quizzed some builders for their alleged links with scam tainted chit fund firm, ArthaTatwa and its proprietor, Pradip Sethi who is currently in jail for misappropriating crores of public money.
Binay Krishna Das, President, Credai-Odisha said, “People are normally in mood to buy properties in the festive season starting from October to January.
As per the internal Credai estimates, the housing units worth Rs 8,000 crores are under construction and another Rs 6,000 crores will be infused into the sector for building about 11,000 housing units in next three years. Of these, 6,000 units will be constructed in the affordable housing segment.
Credai-Odisha will be organising ‘Property Expo-13’ starting from November 8. Nearly 120 real-estate companies, financial institutions and building material companies are expected to participate in the three day event.
“About 5000 housing units will be show cased in the expo”, Das added. This year the regional chapter will also organise training sessions for construction workers on issues like improving quality and customer satisfaction.
