Is this a good time to buy property ?

For many owning a home is a distant dream. High housing prices compel them to stay in rented houses. But the current slowdown in the property market and fall in prices looks like a solution to the problems of the city dwellers. The deal gains weight as the fall in pricing is combined with cheapest home loans in 6 years resulting in a question playing on the mind of many buyers and investors is: Is this a good time to invest in property?

According to the experts demonetization has suppressed the transactions and most likely will remain in the same action for a while. The markets arc is still in the price discovery mode and will result in correction and evolving of pricing as long as the sale remains depressed. However as the effects of demonetization still can’t be quantified fully the amount of price correction and the timelines cannot be predicted.

Amit Oberoi, National Director (knowledge systems) at Colliers International In­dia says “This year's Budget focused on the affordable housing segment: by giving this segment 'infrastructure' status and providing the developers of affordable housing access to cheaper capital on a longer tenure, It has made it more lucrative for private sector participation. Also, affordable projects arc now more viable as the Budget raised the time bar to complete these projects from 3 to 5 years, and also increased the area of housing units by changing the measure from carpet to built-up area. For buyers, the government has provided 3% and 4% interest subsidy on home loans of up to Rs 9 and Rs 12 lakh, respectively. This sector thus offers promising prospects.”

The deferred decision to buy a house by many prospective home buyers will surely change now as the home buyers were eagerly waiting for this opportunity over the last few years in anticipation of price correction believes the developers.

Keeping all this factors in mind, it is an ideal time for end users to take that decision of purchasing their shortlisted property. "Developers are making good offers to promote sales. Instead of paying rentals, which is a net outflow and does not contribute to any asset creation, prospective home buyers should go in for a home loan where the outflow in the form of EMI ensures an asset creation. There are also a number of good subvention schemes in the market today, which help buffer home loan interest costs for the buyers." Harinder Dhillon, VP (Sales) of DLF, said.

Also, with inflation under control, India is entering a low-interest regime and home loan interest rates are widely anticipated to come down substantially. "It will result in lowering of Ehtls for home buyers along with more people meeting the eligibility criteria. This, coupled with rapid urbanization, robust economic growth and higher salaries would create a very large segment of new home buyers, resulting in enhanced demand for housing, especially in urban areas," Pankaj Bansal says.

“The decision by the government to demonetize high value currency notes has added to the perception that the prices will correct further, which may result in home buyers postponing their buying decision. This is expected to further enhance this pent-up demand. which may lead to an increase in prices moving forward, as we believe the real estate market has already bottomed out and Is on recovery path," Pankaj Bansal, Director of M3M Group.

However, according to the experts the investors or the buyers looking for a quick buck should not invest instead investors should look at long term investment tenures to reap benefits from the sec­tor.

"We believe that investors should operate contrary to market movements—investing when the market is in the troughs and selling during the highs of the crest. It is, however, imperative that investors fol­low the fundamental rules of investment. Investments should be made with due diligence and, where necessary, on expert ad­vice. Any investment basket should comprise a healthy mix of asset classes, not just real estate, and investors should not over-leverage. Moreover, home buyers should stick with developers who have a good track record." Amit Oberoi says.