Home prices may drop upto 12%

Last week, at Mumbai’s Grand Hyatt Hotel, leading city-based real estate developers were closeted in an hour-long meeting. The agenda: to discuss ways to counter the slump in home sales which has persisted for almost an year now.

The outcome: The bitter realisation that the Indian developer has limited options before him to attract buyers. The builders unanimously agreed to allow customers to have a greater say in price negotiations — in other words, they decided to cut home prices.

The developers agreed to give a 10-12% reduction for all consumers, albeit couched in schemes such as ‘bearing’ 2-3% of the interest cost, flexible rates for parking and floor rise pricing. “Don’t be rigid on rates; allow the customer to have his say,” was how one participant who is involved in large housing projects in suburban Mumbai, described the conclusion of the meeting.

The developers’ move also assumes significance as a sharp correction in Mumbai home prices would have a ripple effect across the country. Though residential prices are down 20-25% across India, developers in Mumbai have been unwilling to cut prices, citing a huge demand-supply mismatch.

“This quarter was crucial for us,” said a developer who was present at the meeting. “Demand is still robust as far as residential markets are concerned. What we want is to convert the demand into actual deals. If pricing is hampering sales, we are willing to compromise on that,” he added.


Till now, developers were not ready to accept that demand at high prices would weaken. In fact, most developers were currently holding out and did not offer discounts. They could afford to do so, since they were sitting on huge profits accumulated over the past two years of bull run in realty market.

“But the same developers have realised that demand is unlikely now at the prices seen two years back,” said an analyst with Kotak Securities. “We believe demand can only come back if prices correct.”

Some of the developers who were learnt to have attended the Grand Hyatt meeting were Akruti City, Nirmal Lifestyles, Kanakia Builders, Evershine Builders, Rahejas and RNA.

In Delhi, several developers in the National Capital Region have started offering deeper cash discounts and have increased their marketing efforts. Developers are banking on more ‘genuinely-priced’ products, a good cash discount and more advertising to lure buyers. “We didn’t offer any discount during the festive season last year,” said Raheja Developers chairman Navin Raheja. “But this time, everyone is giving it, since market conditions have changed.”