REALTY NOW!: The Times of India

Slowdown or otherwise, a home-buyer has immense opportunities in store. This Mangal Parv, we give you tips to make your home-buying experience fruitful in the ongoing real estate scenario

THERE ARE SEVERAL RE PORTS, which suggest that property prices have touched an alltime high mark and at the same time, there are also other reports suggesting that the demand for houses has come down, thus resulting in an increase in unsold inventory. Real estate experts explain why the slowdown is the best time to buy a property and how it ensures that you get the best bargain for your home. As per a report published by Liaises Foras, a real estate research firm in Mumbai, there is an invento ry of around 1.5 lakh unsold flats in Mumbai. This year, 176,666 housing units could not find any buyers, as compared to 146,729 units last year. With the current rate of buying, it will take over 41 months to dispose off this inventory, the report states.

Pankaj Kapoor, MD, Liases Foras, reveals that only 46,000 houses were sold in Mumbai this year, against a demand of 20 lakh houses in the city. “People cannot afford to buy a house at the current rate. They prefer to wait for prices to correct,“ he says. Devang Varma, director at Omkar Realtors & Developers Pvt. Ltd, explains that many developers at the time of a slowdown, become a bit flexible with their asking rates. “During a slowdown, the customers tend to bargain harder. Developers who have a price spread, do at times, become a bit flexible to close the deal,“ he says.“You would have developers offering incentives like a car park at a preferential location or a stamp duty and registration charge included in the price that they would be offering to the customer,“ he adds.Yashwant Dalal, chairman, Estate Agents Association of India says, “During a slow down, the potential buyer anticipates the rates to come down further. If the seller doesn't get back quickly and closes the deal, the potential buyer may even lower his offer price later. “There have been instances where the buyer, after giving his offer, has even dropped his offer rate further, when the seller got back to him a month later.The buyer feels that the seller has gotten back to him after a month, which means that he doesn't have any other buyer in the market and prefers to lower the rate further.“ The reverse happens in a bull market. “If the buyer goes back to the seller after a month, he would have increased the price by around 10 per cent,“ he concludes.