Real estate developers and consultants expressed disappointment over the RBI’s credit policy announced today and has asked the apex bank to infuse more liquidity into the system and to the property sector.
“It’s disappointing but understandable,” global real estate consultant Cushman and Wakefield Managing Director (South Asia) Sanjay Verma said.
He noted that though inflation has begun sliding, it is still in double digits, so there is always a fear that additional liquidity can stoke a price rise.
“For me, the availability of credit to developer should be the bigger priority. Demand is there, someone needs to supply,” Verma added.
The liquidity situation is bad enough to delay construction and this condition is worse than the high interest rate regime, he said.
“There is disappointment as the financial markets and the entire productive sector were expecting some relief from the credit policy as it was anticipated that RBI would reduce the bank repo rate and CRR,” Parsvnath Developers Ltd Chairman Pradeep Jain said.
The policy has shaken the confidence of investors to the extent that the Sensex fell to its lowest since 2006, he said.
Suncity Projects Director Ashok Bansal too expressed unhappiness over the policy. “We were expecting some relief from RBI but that did not happen. We are disappointed,” he said.
Amit Sarin of Anant Raj Industries said: “We are disappointed. The RBI should take some bold decisions to bring back positivity in the market”.
The apex bank today announced the credit policy keeping repo rate unchanged at 8% and CRR at 6.5%.