By IANS,
Kolkata: Neither aggressive marketing nor new offers were able to light up the real estate sector in the country ahead of Diwali, says a survey by industry lobby Assocham.
Builders and investors were expecting a 100 percent jump in demand ahead of the festival. However, it rose only 20 percent.
Investment in property remained lukewarm due to high prices of houses in and around the national capital region (NCR).
Major factors for the subdued demands were high land prices and the unprecedented rise in cost of construction materials, iron and cement, the survey said Thursday.
The survey was carried out in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Hyderabd, Pune, Chandigarh and Dehradun.
“The housing inventory in NCR is huge as a large number of projects are coming up in peripheral areas,” said Assocham secretary general D.S. Rawat.
“Although prices had generally remained stable – both for commercial and residential properties — the lack of buoyancy and weak investor sentiments added to the woes of developers,” Rawat said.
The industry lobby said the government should grant industry status to the real estate sector and projects must be classified as infrastructure and priority lending should be made available for keeping pace with demand and supply.