Anuj PuriAnuj Puri, Chairman – ANAROCK Property Consultants

The festive season is considered auspicious for property purchase and Indians across many states prefer to make informed property buying decisions during this period.

To encash on the increased demand during the festive season, builders, on their part, leave no stone unturned to lure customers with freebies and discounts.

Over the last few years, mounting unsold stock across cities prompted developers to clear their stock and focus more on project completion rather than launch new ones.

Festive Season Offers

This year, launches have increased, and many builders have, in fact, been offering schemes, freebies and discounts all year long to attract home buyers.

Some of the prominent offers include cash discounts, flexi-payment plans, no registration or stamp duty fees, no EMIs till possession, free home appliances or gold coins, etc.

A lot is up for grabs and it is interesting to note the variations in festive discounts. Cash-starved developers are also coming up with some very innovative and attractive schemes.

If we analyse the trends during the year and previous festive season,

Anuj Puri, Chairman – ANAROCK Property Consultants

The year 2017 has not exactly lived up to the expectations of the residential property sector. RERA has been deployed, but as of today, only 18 states and 7 Union territories have notified RERA, while 10 states are yet to notify it.

While RERA has certainly already made its expected effects felt in states like Maharashtra – which includes very important markets like Mumbai and Pune – it has not yet extended its full influence over parts of the country where RERA it is probably needed the most.

Though Haryana and UP have notified RERA, they are yet to set up the portal via which developers can upload their applications for registration of their projects. The web portal is also critical for buyers, as this is where they can check the details of projects. Also, these two states have come under heavy criticism for diluting the Centre’s RERA norms.