The real estate slowdown is still a long from recovering

The real estate sector is still reeling under the impact of the triple whammy of demonetization, the roll-out of goods and services tax, or GST, and the introduction of new real estate regulations, the latest data from the project-tracking database of the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) suggests. New real estate projects launched in the June quarter were the lowest since 2005, the data shows. New project launches dropped by 29% from the previous quarter and by 60% from the year-ago period. In terms of project costs, the value of new projects launched in financial year 2017-18 was 23% lower than that of 2016-17 and 5% below 2015-16. Of the new projects launched in the June quarter, Farrukhnagar Industrial Park Project worth ? 600 crore is the largest among the projects for which data is available. The stalling rate in real estate projects remains high, despite a marginal decline in the June-ended quarter. The average stalling rate in the first half of 2018 stands at an all-time high of 13%, with over ? 2.5 trillion stuck in stalled realty projects. The stalling rate is calculated as the value of stalled projects as a percentage of projects under implementation. At 20%, the stalling rate in commercial real estate projects by far exceeds the stalling rate in housing projects, which stands at 11% . A large part of the sluggishness in the real estate sector in 2017-18 can be attributed to the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA). “Developers across the country chose to put on-hold new project launches in order to gauge the impact of RERA on their ongoing and tentative projects and the regulatory and compliance measures needed to be taken in order to be compliant. Thus, first half of FY18 remained tepid for the real estate industry,” wrote Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at CARE Ratings, in a report dated 12 June. There are a number of reasons why the outlook for the sector does not appear very bright. There is very little pick-up in borrowing from banks for real estate, bank lending data shows. In fact, credit growth to commercial real estate has consistently fallen since 2014 and remains at subdued levels. Not surprisingly, property prices have stagnated or fallen in many cities, especially where investment demand was a big driver of the real estate market. Suburban markets in Delhi-NCR region and Mumbai have been hit the hardest. Given the increasing likelihood of policy rate hikes in the months to come, interest rates are likely to harden, which will raise borrowing costs and likely dampen real estate investments.