Weak Home Sales Fail to Halt Price Hikes

Property prices are still rising despite the weak home sales. The last quarter witnessed fall of home sales and rise of property prices.

Sky-touching home prices have hurt the sentiments of buyers, keeping them away from buying. Though this, the higher property prices, have caused the fall of home sales, still the prices are shooting up everywhere.

Due to the weak home sales, residential market remains sluggish. The builders find no way to attract buyers. While they are thinking of attaining some takers by reducing the prices, the prices are still moving upward.

The last quarter report of the market analyzer Liases Foras has recently reported that home prices in Mumbai has reached record heights.

Mumbai residential market, where property prices are touching the sky, is one of the costliest markets.

According to the Liases Foras report the prices rose in the city by 2.9%. This is during the last quarter ended in March. With the rise by 2.9 percent, the average price has reached Rs.11626 per square foot.

The same period, on the other end, witnessed a mere one percent growth of home sales.

A slight price correction had taken place in Mumbai in the last quarter of 2012. So the people expected another price correction soon. However as against the expectations, the prices again rose.

Pankaj Kapoor of Liases Foras says that the rise of home prices was common in most of the cities.

Along with the rise of prices, the vacancy percentage also grew. Rising by 3.7% the vacancy rate has reached 139.3 sq. ft. Delhi-NCR saw a slight rising of vacancy rates by 0.1 percent. After this growth, the current vacancy rate in Delhi NCR is 262.6 sq. ft.

Liases Foras report was prepared after tracking six top cities of India. While half of the cities faced a downfall of home sales, it was the worst in Hyderabad.