Monday, November 26, 2007

The origins of Indian Property Market Bubble can be traced to the interest rate reductions made by the NDA coalition government in the years following 2001. Home Loan Rates fell to a (then) historical lows of 7.5% in early 2004. This prepared the basis for the massive increase in real estate property prices across India. Low interest rates triggered huge interest in individuals to borrow to own their own homes and this triggered an increase in demand for real estate across India.
The Indian Property Market has been growing fast since March 2005, when the current UPA government decided to open FDI in Real Estate. The market has been growing at a dizzying rate of 100%+,.[citation needed]
Some apartments in key Indian cities such as Mumbai and Delhi are getting as expensive as those in the advanced nations[citation needed].
However, speculations aside housing prices depend a lot on various factors such as the age of the property, facilities, surrounding area etc. Hence, the property bubble will burst for the places bought over priced with no stronghold value to it.
Some have suggested that given India's population density is closer to that of Europe than that of America the real value of Indian Real Estate should be close to European levels rather than American levels. When looked at in that way Indian real estate is still cheap. This argument assumes the rapid economic growth in India will have brought per capita income in India to European levels within the next 5 years in urban areas.
For example, an apartment of 1500 square foot in a Bangalore suburb will cost around USD 150,000,a house at about USD 400,000. In a class A suburb of Chicago you can buy a large house for around same amount (400K). Per capita ratio is around 50:1 (50,000 $ to 1100$); this suggests the presence of a bubble.
Contra argument to this is US prices should ideally move with economy/inflation rate of 2-3% while Indian prices will gallop at the rate of 10% a year and probably more as the land distribution market is inefficient.
By its very definition a bubble is a short term phenomenon while Indian real estate market has continued on a secular upward trend, apart from periodic adjustments, in the last 10 years. Bear in mind that there are almost 400 million Indians waiting to hit the middle class group and they will exert additional pressure on the system.
One of the big problem of real-estate market is that supply lags behind demand by about 5 years (Plan-Approve-Finance-Construct time).
Lack of efficient signals to market participants means that there will be periods of mismatch between suppliers and buyers hence leading to cycles of booms and busts.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_property_bubble"
Real estate or immovable property is a legal term (in some jurisdictions) that encompasses land along with anything permanently affixed to the land, such as buildings. Real estate (immovable property) is often considered synonymous with real property (also sometimes called realty), in contrast with personal property (also sometimes called chattel or personalty). However, for technical purposes, some people prefer to distinguish real estate, referring to the land and fixtures themselves, from real property, referring to ownership rights over real estate.
The terms real estate and real property are used primarily in common law, while civil law jurisdictions refer instead to immovable property.