Anuj Puri, Chairman – ANAROCK Property Consultants
Inarguably, the Indian real estate vertical that in the direst need of funding is the residential sector. In a perfect world, the private equity that is now pouring into the country’s realty sector would focus on where it is needed the most.
However, PE firms have their own investment rationale, and Indian residential real estate has been far from attractive to them.
There are sound reasons for this. The Indian residential sector has been hounded by multiple problems for the last 3 to 4 years. These include the issue of stalled/delayed projects, liquidity crunch, and high property values despite weakened demand and slow sales.
The country’s housing market has also seen the highest impact of policy-induced disruptions. Given the fact that the housing market was tainted by malpractices and lack of customer-centricity by developers, the Government had to step in with policy interventions squarely aimed at cleaning up the sector.
The inevitable fallout of demonetization (DeMo) on an industry which was ‘thriving’ on black money aside:
- The long-pending enactment of the Real Estate Regulation Act (RERA) drew clear regulatory lines for the housing market –