Mumbai sees lowest sales registrations

There are three primary factors that affected the customer sentiments which led to fall of sales registrations. The first one is the fall in the country's GDP. The country's GDP growth was just 4.4% in the second quarter of this year, the slowest since the first quarter of 2009. The country saw a loss of about 2 lakh jobs across different sectors in the last 6-12 months according to a dipstick survey conducted by Financial Express in September. The slow economy has created fewer jobs. Fear of job loss has shown an impact on sales registrations. According to Naredco (National Real Estate Development Council) officials, Mumbai may see a 5-10% change in registrations either in a positive or negative direction.

The second reason for the fall in sales registrations is the fall in the value of rupee. The rupee value fell non-stop since April and stopped only at the end of August. In fact, rupee slipped by about 46% in the last two years to hit an all time low of Rs. 68 against the US dollar in August. The RBI has now taken some steps to stop the further falling of rupee. But the fall in rupee already affected customer sentiments.

Rising costs in Mumbai is another pain. Mumbai is proving to be one of the most expensive cities for real estate in the world. Rising costs have put prospective buyers on the back foot who are looking for better deals and affordable houses. This has led to pile up of unsold inventory. According to data from Jones Land LaSalle, Greater Mumbai has close to 48 months of unsold inventory against the normal levels of 15 months.