Over the past five years, Pune’s real estate sector has emerged as a steady and balanced realty market which staged a big comeback in 2021. According to Piyush Gupta, Managing Director, Capital Markets and Investment Services, Colliers, Pune realty market has evolved positively despite several disruptions. “There have been some new project launches which indicates bullishness among the developers and confidence among the buyers. Maharashtra government too has introduced favourable policies and the consolidation in the sector has created buoyancy in the market.”
Shailesh Puranik, Managing Director, Puranik Builders added, “This decade belongs to real estate. The residential real estate demand will continue to be high not only for the next couple of quarters, but also for the next five years, if not the next decade at least. Coupled with that, mortgage rates are in the range of 6.5 or 6.75 per cent and there is Covid-induced demand and pent-up demand in the markets. Inventories are getting over and we will see a good price appreciation from here on.”
As per Arvind Jain, Managing Director, Pride Group about 7-8 cities in India are doing well in the real estate sector, Pune is doing the best because majority of the migrants are in Pune and they will continue to drive the realty demand for Pune.
Irfan A Kazi, Chief Investment Officer, Swami Investment Fund, SBI Cap Ventures Ltd said, “As a stress fund, we haven’t really done well in Pune and this is a good news for the sector. This means that there are very few stressed or stalled projects in the city. We have given approval to about 108 projects, which will complete about 60,000 homes. Of that there are only about three or four projects from Pune, which tells you that less than five per cent of the projects are from Pune.”
Pankaj Kapoor, Founder & Managing Director, Liases Foras Real Estate Rating and Research Pvt Ltd added, “Pune is clocking close to 50,000 unit sales which is probably the second highest across all top eight cities in India. It is doing better than Bangalore and NCR also. Though the geographical expansion is quite large in NCR, despite that, the overall absorption in Pune is much higher in comparison to NCR and Bangalore second to Mumbai.”
Anuj Dhody, Executive Director, City Head, Pune and Head, Advisory and Transaction Services, Pune CBRE said, “I have a very positive outlook towards Pune real estate. The residential and warehousing sectors are likely to see increased investments over the next few quarters.”
PUNE REALTY GROWTH DRIVERS
According to Piyush Gupta, Pune has diverse economic drivers from being the education and IT hub to having a strong auto manufacturing and pharma & biotechnology cluster. The workforce of these sectors are fuelling the consistent demand for residential, commercial and industrial real estate.
Anuj Dhody added that the industrial and logistics is a rapidly growing sector. “Chakan- Talegaon belt is a strategic industrial & warehousing location in Pune and is now emerging as a residential locality too. Industries and affordable housing are the key factors driving the realty market of Pune.”
Shailesh Puranik talking of latest trends elaborated, “Gated development or community living and better sized apartments are in demand. Also with the coming of RERA, good project quality has become a given. Moreover, pandemic has accelerated the consolidation in the sector and it has become a more mature market. All these factors will boost the real estate in coming years.”
Arvind Jain stated, “The state government unified development control rules (DCR) now permit plot holders below 1,500 square feet to erect the construction without submitting the plan to local bodies. This will boost redevelopment. And with amenities not being part of the FSI or mandatorily be on ground floor, small plot holders will be able to add various amenities like gardens, gyms, clubhouse etc.”
Irfan A Kazi said, “Tier-2 markets have mostly been side tracked, when it comes to availability of institutional capital and that’s where as a SWAMIH fund we are striving to make a difference.”
Pankaj Kapoor concluded, “Reverse migrations has triggered the growth of Tier-2 cities contributing majorly to country’s primary sales. Gati Shakti, infrastructure and warehousing segment development are going to be the new enablers of Pune city growth.”
