Want To Buy A Home in Mumbai? This Is The Right Time

There may not be a better time than right now. The real estate sector in the country has had it rough the past two years, with demonetisation, Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act and Goods and Services Tax delivering one shock after the other. But 2017 saw prices come down to unprecedented levels-even the real estate in Mumbai has seen residential prices finally cracked-according to a recently released Knight Frank India report.

Mumbai is the city of dreams. The city of aspiration. The city that never sleeps. And it is also India’s most expensive housing market. Real estate developers constantly push their bars to deliver an edge above the other. With demonetization and RERA, property prices in Mumbai have stabilised, to a certain extent. But is the maturing Mumbai real estate market still affordable? Mumbai’s population has risen by 983% since 1911, according to the census 2011. Demand is always outstripping supply.

According to the report, weighted average prices in this residential market have dropped by 2% in 2017 compared to 2016, a second correction in two years. In the first half of 2016, the market had registered a 4% year-on-year drop in quoted prices over 2015. “The market is slowly turning into a buyers’ market since on one hand the weighted prices have crumbled and seen time correction and on the other hand, developers are offering deep discounts in the range of 10-15% in a bid to attract the fence-sitting buyers,” it explained.

For the first time in the current decade, Mumbai witnessed a decline in quoted residential prices-the weighted average prices were down 5% y-o-y in 2017. The icing on the cake? Freebies from developers ranging from 24-month rent assurance to stamp duty waivers, no floor rise charges and more. When combined with the discount on base prices, “these offers imply an effective discount to the tune of 11-12%” according to the report.

Lately, there has been a push by the Central Govt., to offer affordable housing to one and all. And popular developers are entering this market segment to provide value homes to buyers. So, don’t be surprised to find builders offering affordable 1 BHK value homes in developing areas of the city or on its outskirts.