Indian realtors might have seen good October-December sales, but a recovery in the retail real estate segment still hinges on availability of spaces at competitive rates and improvement in consumption, global consultant C B Richard Ellis has said.
"The retail sector will take some time to fully recover, depending on improvement in domestic consumption, consumer sentiment and availability of retail space at competitive costs," CB Richard Ellis (South Asia) Chairman and Managing Director Anshuman Magazine said in a statement here today.
Improving consumer sentiment and competitive retail rentals had, however, resulted in the sector "ambling towards better activity levels, especially in Tier I cities," he added.
The global real estate consultancy firm also expects oversupply of new office spaces across the country to keep rentals flat in 2010, despite positive indicators suggesting that commercial real estate was improving.
"On the office-market front, demand is expected to improve although rentals are expected to remain flat in the medium term due to (forecast) large supply of space," Magazine said.
The year 2010 may, however, see "some sustainability in the residential market as activity levels have improved", he said.
Prices for residential, retail and commercial real estate across the country plummeted in 2009 due as the global economic meltdown froze demand.
Residential sales declined significantly and demand for office spaces also saw a substantial drop, triggering a dip in rentals and postponement or cancellation of projects.
Retail real estate was also significantly impacted.
However, each of these segments have witnessed improvement compared to the previous year as reduction in prices, softening of interest rates and an improvement in the economic sentiment led buyers back to the market, the consultancy firm said.
