Housing prices likely to fall in coming days: Developers

New Delhi, Nov 21 (PTI) After galloping wildly for over three years, real estate prices today showed real signs of cooling with leading players, like DLF and Unitech, signalling lower apartment costs.
Realty industry body National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO) today asked its members to cut rates on housing projects by up to 15 per cent to revive sales.

Appreciating the initiative, Unitech spokesperson told PTI, "We welcome the move by NAREDCO. We will consider to cut the prices accordingly." DLF Group Executive Director Rajeev Talwar said: "Everyone will fall in market-determined price so that buyers will buy at the best prices and will come back again." All NAREDCO members would follow the advice, he said.

Other realty firms, including Ansal API, Omaxe and Assotech, have already agreed to cut prices, while Bangalore-based Sobha Developers has promised to evaluate slashing rates, NAREDCO President Rohtas Goel said.

The Council has asked members to cut sales price by 1-5 per cent for existing projects, 5-10 per cent on future projects and 10-15 per cent on affordable housing ranging between Rs 3-20 lakh. These reductions would be in the form of discounts to the customers, who pay their instalments on time.

NAREDCO requested the members to cut down their margins, reduce advertisement budgets and slash brokerage fees so that discounts could be offered to the consumers.

Earlier this week, Finance Minister P Chidambaram had asked the Indian industry to cut prices to revive sales and reduce inventories.

"We respect the concerns of the Finance Minister and we are ready for price cuts. On existing projects the prices have already fallen by 20-40 per cent across the country," said Goel, who is also the Chairman and Managing Director of Omaxe. PTI