Real estate tags down by 12%: Report

For the first time in 10 years, real estate prices in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region have witnessed a five percent drop, according to a report by an international real estate consultancy firm. The report by Knight Frank further says that developers are offering many sops to home buyers which brings the collective discount on apartment prices to a hefty 11 to 12 per cent.

Going by Knight Frank's analysis, it would seem that the real estate market has overcome the impact of demonetization as residential sales in second half of 2017 were 19 per cent better than demonetization-hit second half of 2016.

Even sales volumes recorded in the whole of 2017 showed a 3 per cent increase.

Dr. Samantak Das, chief economist and national director of research at Knight Frank said, "For the first time in a decade, the Mumbai market has experienced a drop in residential prices as developers cut down prices to offload unsold inventory. The base price has come down by 5 per cent which translates into an effective price benefit of 11-12 per cent for buyers. This includes bouquet of incentives such as waivers on stamp duty, floor rise and assured rental schemes."

However, home launches in second half of 2017 plummeted by 23 per cent as developers shifted their energy to completing existing projects. On the whole, 2017 saw 32 per cent fewer launches than 2016, and new projects and launches were down by a staggering 83 per cent as compared to 2010.