The high-end luxury real estate market is facing a double whammy. The demand from domestic buyers has already dried down and now even non-resident Indians (NRIs) ,who constituted a significant market for luxury real estate developers, are developing cold feet.
With the US property market witnessing a correction due to subprime crisis, the NRIs are expecting the same to happen in India and are holding back on their purchases.
Three-four years ago, there were only a few big developers into the game of building luxury homes. But the higher margin in the business prompted many others to join.
The developers entered the luxury segment without a proper assessment of the market. Now they are faced with a major supply-demand mismatch. In Punjab, Delhi NCR and Mumbai suburbs, the supply far outstrips demand.
The price correction in the US has prompted NRIs to evaluate buying properties in their local market, where they can easily control and manage them, unlike in India, where managing property has been an issue with them.
Besides a demand problem, the competition among developers has intensified as they are wooing the same segment of NRIs.
PIOs are second or third generation people across the world, whose forefathers had migrated from India during British Raj and settled abroad. There is a good population of PIOs in Africa and Australia. The recent attempts by the Indian government to renew ties with PIOs by hosting Pravasi Bharatiya Divas may also have a positive push to the marketing efforts of developers such as Ansals.
Besides targeting a new segment, developers are also offering freebies to woo NRIs. Firms are offering free tickets to potential NRI home buyers to visit India and take a look at their property. This is done in association with banks, which maintain a list of high net worth individuals.
With the US property market witnessing a correction due to subprime crisis, the NRIs are expecting the same to happen in India and are holding back on their purchases.
Three-four years ago, there were only a few big developers into the game of building luxury homes. But the higher margin in the business prompted many others to join.
The developers entered the luxury segment without a proper assessment of the market. Now they are faced with a major supply-demand mismatch. In Punjab, Delhi NCR and Mumbai suburbs, the supply far outstrips demand.
The price correction in the US has prompted NRIs to evaluate buying properties in their local market, where they can easily control and manage them, unlike in India, where managing property has been an issue with them.
Besides a demand problem, the competition among developers has intensified as they are wooing the same segment of NRIs.
PIOs are second or third generation people across the world, whose forefathers had migrated from India during British Raj and settled abroad. There is a good population of PIOs in Africa and Australia. The recent attempts by the Indian government to renew ties with PIOs by hosting Pravasi Bharatiya Divas may also have a positive push to the marketing efforts of developers such as Ansals.
Besides targeting a new segment, developers are also offering freebies to woo NRIs. Firms are offering free tickets to potential NRI home buyers to visit India and take a look at their property. This is done in association with banks, which maintain a list of high net worth individuals.