Presently, discussions of a slowdown are prevalent as buyers seem to be taking longer to finalize their decisions. Pranay Vakil, chairman of Knight Frank, noted, "Without a doubt, interest rates have made a difference. After all, the monthly outgo will increase".
Examining the situation in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR), it has been identified that transactional volumes pertaining to residential projects have experienced a decline of 20-25% within the last six months. This includes upscale developments such as Emaar MGF’s Palm Street project located in Gurgaon, the Plumeria housing project by Uppal Group in Greater Noida, Unitech’s venture along the Taj Express highway, and BPTP’s Parklands project in Faridabad.
Developers appear to be rather concerned regarding the current state of the market. While they acknowledge that inflation and interest rates are crucial factors, their optimism regarding the future remains low. Vipin Aggarwal, executive director at Omaxe, stated, "There is a slowdown and this will continue for at least a year and a half. Besides, the real estate sector is itself facing a cash crunch. There are many companies that are focusing on completing the projects at hand instead of increasing the size of their land-banks".
Conversely, the narrative in Mumbai is starkly different, with demand significantly outstripping supply. Dharmesh Jain, chairman of the Nirmal Group of Companies, emphasized, "Supply is meager and that is a huge problem". This imbalance between demand and supply has contributed to Mumbai's status as one of the world’s priciest property markets.
In elite neighborhoods like Malabar Hill in South Mumbai, property prices have surged from roughly Rs 12,000 per square foot in 2003 to double that amount this year. Notably, a deal was finalized at an astounding Rs 60,000 per square foot earlier this year.
Throughout the nation, high-end projects are emerging at a rapid pace. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that major developers like DLF are minimizing the narrative of a slowdown. A spokesperson from DLF commented, "Our properties are developed according to the current market needs. In order to stimulate demand, we are also coming out with affordable housing and, therefore, we have not witnessed much of an impact on account of a slowdown".
India's IT hub, Bangalore, is similarly facing a decline in sales volumes. J C Sharma, managing director of Sobha Developers, remarked that home sales have decreased this year when compared to 2007. He further acknowledged, "Like any other industry, real estate is going through a cycle".