Civic records show real estate slowdown

This compares even less favourably with the statistics of 2005-06 when the PMC had received 6,891 proposals for building sanction. More telling is the entry against the number of proposals approved by PMC in 2007-08, which at 3,924 projects reflects a significant degrowth of over 20 per cent from 4,919 in 2006-07.

Similarly, there is a slump in the number of projects for which completion certificate has been issued in this fiscal. The figure stands at a lowly 775 projects — a 34 per cent drop from 1,168 building projects in the city that were completed in 2006-07. The city builders could find nothing in the PMC statistics that reflected a slowdown in the city real estate business. While Shashank Paranjape, managing director, Paranjape Schemes, said the number of projects for which approval were sought last year were higher as there was the government tax holiday that was ending in March 2007, Lalitkumar Jain, president of Pune Builders and Promoters Association, said this could lead to a further rise in property rates. “Those looking at city real estate as merely an investment option are very few compared to genuine customers,” said Paranjape. “The demand of residential built space continues to increase. The reduction in building projects in 2007-08 due to less availability of developable land will increase the property rates further as the demand-supply is going to increase further,” said Jain.

He denied the charge that the city rates were artificially inflated. However, the consumer activists think otherwise. “The builders have always exaggerated the demand for residential built space and through investors hold on to property to increase the rates. The decrease in building proposals received by the PMC indicates that the demand has been dropping,” said Sudharkar Velankar of Grahak Hitvardhini said.

The consumer rights organisation has been urging the state government to keep a check on the artificial price hike created in the market,