There some big news coming up for the home buyers as the prices are expected to be slashed to 12-17 pc in select markets over the next few month, according to a survey. The developers are trying to cut down the stock up inventory and push sales in next few months to cover up their gaps.

By Diwali next year, the prices could come down 12-17 pc in Delhi-NCR region, Mumbai and other high-end markets. But the overall property market is flat and new launches are very low in the recent time period.

But in the secondary market, prices have slashed down on paper but people are actually holding on to the older rates.

Since previous Diwali, prices are almost stagnant or shown minor increase. According to a data at the end of the first quarter prices in cities like Gurgaon and Mumbai rose 10 and 5 pc. But according to another data prices in 26 cities including Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Nagpur, etc. have fell in the first quarter compared to the previous one.

The decline in price gives an idea that the developers are now ready to take some cuts in margins, which will allow them to clear their huge backlog inventory, have liquidity and increase demand.

Mumbai has an inventory of close to 45 months, while the National Capital has 25 months and Bangalore has 26 months. Real estate firms battling slowdown are betting big on festive season to push their sales. The sector is roping in big celebrities and sportsperson to endorse their projects across the country.

For January-July this year, the new launches have dipped down extremely between 35 pc and 62 pc in big markets like Gurgaon, Mumbai, Pune, Noida and Kolkata. Overall, launches in major cities this year were down 16 pc to 188,348 units across segments.