Mumbai region’s realty market: On verge of collapse?
Mumbai, 17th December, 2013: Construction activity in Mumbai Region is seizing up. Due to recent changes in laws and market realities, builders are finding it difficult to get permissions, to sell completed projects and to pay back financiers. After decades of giving false promises to the administration and luring the aam aadmi with brochures that show heavenly buildings, it appears that the builders have themselves fallen prey to rosy market projections. Until recently, middle class Indians and non-resident Indians (NRIs) believed that investing in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane was a sure-shot way of getting four- or five-fold appreciation every ten years. But now they are forced to ask whether the ceiling has been reached. The proverbial last nail in this coffin is the announcement of the Central Real Estate Regulatory Act, which may prevent builders from raising cheap finance from high-risk-appetite investors. On the one hand, full-page ads are claiming t...