A year after singing hosanna to affordable housing, realtors are looking the other way — to high-end and premium projects.

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The Lodha Group recently launched the Wing C tower in its residential project Casa Royale in Thane, offering 2BHK flats of 927 sq ft super-built area at Rs 4,995 per sq ft, thereby quoting a price of around Rs 46 lakh per flat, excluding parking and other ancillary charges. Considering the flats were priced Rs 27.63 lakh onwards at launch of the project in January, 2009, this represents a jump of 67.58% in the price in a little over a year.

“In Casa Royale we had sold more than 90% in the first two towers, so we have hiked prices. In comparison to last year when there were a lot of affordable housing projects, this year it is less,” said Abhiseck Lodha, director, Lodha Group.

Casa Royale isn’t alone.

Recently launched developments such as US Open apartments and duplexes by Dharmesh Jain-promoted Nirmal Lifestyle in Mulund, Lodha Luxuria in Thane and Dheeraj Insignia in BKC are quoting fabulous prices, too.

Developers such as Unitech, DLF, Orbit Corp, Lodha Group, DB Realty, Kumar Builders, IndiaBulls Real Estate have either launched or are launching projects in the Worli and Parel areas with prices in the range of Rs 13,000-30,000 per sq ft.

Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd has identified two land parcels in South Mumbai for slum rehabilitation and redevelopment projects.

On its part, the Lodha Group is launching 3 million sq ft in the premium segment in Mahalaxmi and 2 million sq ft in the high-end segment at an unspecified location even as it develops a 5 million sq ft affordable housing project in Dombivili next month.

The central Mumbai region, between Worli and Parel, is set to see new launches of 7,000-7,500 apartments in the next 3-12 months, not to mention the under-construction and unsold projects in the region.

“Every developer now has a wide range, which was not the case a year back. Last year, the emphasis was on affordable and developers are now balancing it with more high-end ones. In the next 3-12 months, Rs 45,000-50,000 crore worth projects would be up for sale in the central region itself,” Anand Narayanan K B, director, residential agency of international property consultants Knight Frank, said.

“If the equity market remains robust, it will get absorbed, but if the market is fatigued, then it will take time to absorb this kind of supply,” he said.

Happily for the developers, the market is back near the peak prices of 2007.

“The premium market is back and there is enough liquidity available. Last year, the theme was affordable projects, but lately there have been no announcements in this segment. Affordable launches are happening in Bangalore, Chennai but not here and we are back with 2007 level prices in Mumbai for sure,” Ambar Maheshwari, head - investment advisory, DTZ International Property Advisers, said.

“Realty market has seen full revival in residential segment and even segments like commercial and IT have picked up substantially, particularly in South Mumbai where the land prices are high.”

On the flip side, transaction costs in real estate are slated to move up due to the introduction of service tax of 10.3% from either June or the first week of July and the possible introduction of value added tax. Added to that, home loans will also turn costlier come April and it will start pinching the buyers’ pockets.

“The extra burden on consumer is going up and it is detrimental for the sector when the implementation begins,” Shah cautions.Anand, however, points out that the impact of interest rate and service tax will only be for buyers below Rs 1-1.5 crore who generally take loans for their homes.