Realty sector takes a hit

The government’s surprise move to demonetise the Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes has laid a cooling effect on the pockets of black money holders who find the housing market a benefitting sector to put in their black money. 

Around 80 to 90 per cent of the payment in real estate deals is done in the form of hard cash which opens wider the opportunity for black money holders to get their black money parked easily. As many developers, resellers and home buyers feel that having cash components is a veritable must, the resale property segment is thus, majorly agonized by this decision.

Since long, there have been several demands made to bring transparency in the RE sector so as to make it more organized. Many feel that the demonetisation move will surely address the grievances of this sector up to some extent. Builders and realtors are making various efforts to relieve the short term pain by aggressively turning towards the affordable housing segments.

The panics among the black money holders have compelled them to find ways of turning their ill-gotten wealth into white. Certain small builders and real estate agents are struggling hard to appraise their sales and are introducing new promotional offers to increase their sales. Aditya builder’s group in Noida has come up with a heavy discount scheme where they are providing 3BHK flats at the price of a 2BHK. 

Several such schemes and discounts are being provided by other builders also who want to bring their businesses back on the track.

Noida and Ghaziabad are the hubs for construction and building activities and people find this region is the perfect place to get their money invested. To boost their sales, some small real estate agents are now practicing vicious activities. 

A property seeker from Noida said, “I received some calls from real estate agents where they offered to accept the defunct currency as well. Sources also revealed that the money earned will get deposited to more than hundreds of accounts which are managed by the network of these agents.

Some developers on condition of namelessness claimed that customers are also approaching them with various offers to invest their black money in. These developers have their projects operational in the cities.

This exercise would surely come as a relief to the homebuyers and the also for those people who can’t struggle with EMIs due to high-interest rate structures as it is likely to make the interest rate structure move downward.