Costly home loans pinch realtors, worry about financial closure of projects

According to experts, returns from residential projects have come down from 20-30 per cent before the pandemic to 8-10 per cent in today's market

With expectations of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raising rates at its April monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting, property developers foresee challenges of financial closure of their projects.

Analysts expect another 25-basis point (bp) repo rate hike at the MPC meeting in April, even as headline retail inflation in January jumped to a three-month high of 6.52 per cent.

For most developers, the cost of borrowing has gone up 100-150 bps in the past year.

“Another rake hike and we may have to go for a reset. We have to rework our costs and push up sales. If rates