‘Investment sentiment for realty improving’

Coimbatore, August 21, 2014 – With the investment sentiment in the realty sector improving, the property exhibition ‘Fairpro 2014’ organised by the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (Credai)-Coimbatore, is expected to generate business volume of about Rs. 40 crore, according to Rajesh B Lund, President of Credai-Coimbatore.

He said that, for the first time, the association has gone online and put the show live on the Internet.

Speaking in Coimbatore on Tuesday, he said the 6{+t}{+h}edition of Fairpro will be held in Coimbatore from August 22 to 24. On display will be about 100 projects by 35 Credai members, covering nearly 5,000 units in residential and commercial categories. The price range would beRs. 20 lakh to Rs. 3 crore. To assist in spot finance, three banks — SBI, PNB and Axis Bank — and two home finance companies — HDFC and LIC Housing Finance — would also be present at the venue.

I Gugan, Convenor, Fairpro, said an important feature of the fair this year will be the focus on the affordable housing segment. There were several properties in the Rs. 20-30 lakh price bracket in this segment. National players such as Tata Housing and L&T Housing will showcase their ongoing projects in other cities. He said the ‘virtual expo’ would remain online for a full year and the viewers could get details of projects put up by developers on the Net.

The viewers could get to the site through www.fairprocoimbatore.com and view the projects of each participant. He said this effort was aimed at ‘bridging the gap’ between developers and buyers by establishing direct contact. This would particularly enable NRIs to choose a property and would help Credai Coimbatore ‘go global’.

Asked about the realty market sentiment this year after a prolonged economic slowdown and how much housing stock remained unsold in the city, Lund said he was unable to provide exact data, but added that while “not many (new) projects have come in this year”, there was good, steady sale by all developers in the city last year. With better consumer sentiment, bookings were on the rise.

He said with construction costs galloping, people have realised it is the best time to buy, particularly as land costs are not going to go down. Many developers are looking at affordable housing as a good opportunity and are targeting buyers looking for properties up to Rs. 50 lakh, with property sizes of 800 sq ft to 1,300 sq ft, depending on the location. Business Line