Sachin Agarwal, CMD – Maple Shelters
The State elections did not have much of an effect on the city’s real estate market as a whole. Historically, Pune’s real estate market has never been very affected by political influences at the State level. Pune is a very steady market and buyer decisions are not dictated by political sentiment, but rather on perceived value. Though very politically aware and enthusiastically wired into the electoral process, Pune’s property buyers saw the State elections as a separate event which had little or no correlation to their investment decisions.
However, the overall momentum of the market always depends to an extent on factors such a pending clearances being granted. There was definitely more momentum to be seen on the residential side after the State elections – especially in terms of affordable housing, since this has now become a political platform.
Some of Pune’s larger developers were a bit over-aggressive in launching luxury projects in 2014, and we will see supply in this segment slowing down in 2015 as existing inventory still needs to be sold. Affordable housing will once again be in full gear in the new year, thanks not only to the new government’s determined push on its ‘Housing For All’ agenda but also because the last Union Budget made budget housing very attractive again. We will see many new launches in this category in 2015, but buyers will be more cautious in their purchase decisions because of the alerts now being sent out about the rash of illegal projects on the city’s outskirts. The highest demand for homes will come from IT employees and industrial workers, since both these sectors will be expanding in the city in 2015.
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