A two-day real estate conference, Build Up 2008, which started in Bangalore on Tuesday, bore the grim realities of the global financial crisis and its impact on Indian real estate. Neither of the two major speakers — Union urban development minister S Jaipal Reddy and CM B S Yeddyurappa — turned up.
The other prominent speakers painted a somewhat sombre picture. “We are feeling the ripples of the global slowdown.
There’s a 30% drop in new projects compared to a year ago,” said Kumar Gera, chairman of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India. However, he added pent-up demand will manifest itself once markets stabilize.
Irfan Razack, CMD of Prestige Estates, said, “Prices in the primary market are expected to stabilize. People are not going to make the profits they did before.”
J C Sharma, MD of Sobha Developers, said, “Going forward, people could see a softening in land prices.”