Real Estate Sales 50% Drop in bookings in India by the NRIs

NRIs delay realty buys; 50% drop in bookings

NEW DELHI, Dec 14, 2008
Neha Dewan, ET Bureau

Recession in the United States and Europe has forced many Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) to rethink their property investment plans in India. There has been a drop of 50-60% bookings by the NRIs over the last three months owing to tight liquidity conditions in the international markets, top realty players told Sunday ET. What’s more, many NRIs are cancelling their earlier bookings as well.

Developers such as Parsvnath, Omaxe and Hiranandani Developers told SundayET that there has been a dip in the NRI buys over the last few months despite the dollar remaining firm vis-à-vis the rupee.

According to Pradeep Jain, chairman, Parsvnath Developers there has been a 50-60% drop in bookings since September. “Over the last three months, the impact of recession in US has been felt strongly in the Indian realty market. If 100 bookings were being made earlier, today that’s not more than 30. This situation may continue till liquidity situation improves in foreign markets,” he said.

The US subprime crisis and the global economic downturn have also taken a toll on the NRI community. “There have been atleast 15-20% cancellations over the last few months. NRIs, who had booked properties earlier, are now hit from all sides as the rupee has depreciated a lot. Hence, the current sentiment is very negative,” Vipin Agrawal, executive director, Omaxe, said.