Real estate recovery unlikely this year

The latest Financial Stability Report of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) hints at a gradual improvement in the house sale-to-unsold inventory ratio in the first half of the current fiscal, but builders and consultants say a turnover in the real estate sector was still some time away. They believe the sale-to-unsold inventory ratio picture is looking better only because of dwindling new launches. Samir Jasuja, founder & CEO of PropEquity, attributed the better sale-to-unsold inventory ratio to a slump in new launches, which were down about 90% across India since 2017. He also said today's sales-to-unsold inventory ratio looks rosier than the last year because of some pick-up in the sales of ready-to-move-in houses. According to him, sales of under-construction houses continued to be subdued.