Anuj Puri, Chairman, ANAROCK Property Consultants
We keep hearing of the ‘wait-and-watch’ or ‘fence-sitting’ syndrome on the residential property market, which basically means that a significant number of people who want to buy a home are not doing so.
Property buyers tend to wait and watch rather than buy for two or three reasons. One would be that they are waiting for a ‘price correction’ – a meaningful reduction in the prices developers quote for their properties. Regardless of whether their hopes are realistic or not, this fence-sitting’ dynamic is a definitely a fact.
It is also frequently said that buyers may also be waiting for lower interest rates on home loans. This is only partly true.
While they certainly play a role in overall buyer sentiment, especially in the affordable housing segment, lower interest rates alone are not a sufficiently compelling rationale for aspiring mid-range housing buyers to abandon their ‘wait-and-watch’ mode.
If, however, the lower interest rates coincide with a hard discount or some other money-saving offer, many people will certainly come onto the market with a firm intention to finally buy a home.