PANJIM: The absence of a buzz in the economy is having an effect on the realty business in the state. The general sentiment is one of wait and watch till the effect of the new government trickles down the system.
Denzil Xavier one of the states’s leading real estate consultants said that sentiment was alive but the supply presently of new flats had reduced in the market resulting in prices not reducing. The number of enquiries had not reduced but the number of sales had definitely taken a hit.
Prices of realty in Goa he said would never ever go down despite these tough circumstances because the destination was such that there would always be someone willing to buy. The only problem is now even that elusive customer was hard to find. This he said was very true for those builders who catered to the middle income and the slightly higher income group.
For those in the niche upper middle class category demand was constant with people buying villas or duplex. The numbers of such sales may have reduced slightly but it was better than not having any sale marked against your name.
Asked what he felt ought to be done he said it was important to provide infrastructure which would then mean it would not be important to stay in Panjim.
Porvorim he said had developed and now there was something similar happening at the Kadamba plateau with some big projects coming up.
However the infrastructure development had not begun. The market in Goa he said had evolved over a period of time with Goans now buying houses to stay instead of people from Delhi and Mumbai using the place to buy a holiday home.
Another reality consultant Ross Vaze felt the market was good though there were not many buyers because of the situation of the Regional Plan and the fact that the CM has not coming clean as to what the situation would be.
There were he said a lot of people who had purchased property and were not aware as to what needed to be done now in this circumstance given the ambiguity.
He said “ they have invested lakhs and are stuck, they don’t know whether it makes sense to sell or to hold on to what they have now. People who had orchid land now find it is called a private forest. People who are interested in selling are quoting slightly higher than the market rate. Those who want to buy do it and the rest of them are waiting”.
For a builder like Clive Lobo the market has been sluggish for a while though he felt it would pick up in a couple of months.
He said “Given that Modi has now taken charge I am sure the economy and then this industry especially in Goa will pick up.”
He went on to say that Goa was a place where people from the rest of the country wanted to own a residence and this was evident in the higher end of the market where demand had not slowed down.
The properties many of which were in the 2 crore price range had a lot of takers especially in places like Siolim and Assagoan.
With regards to the high prices he said that land owners were not willing to reduce their price because there would always be some builder willing to purchase it.
This however also created a problem with occasionally the price for the flat being beyond the range of a large percentage of the market.
Asked what his mantra would be to improve the health of the market , Clive said that it would have to be important to improve the infrastructure of the state. Power and water supply had to improve and then decisions had to be made fast at the state level as well as at the Panchayat level where delays could add to the cost of a project.
Kushte a valuer in the realty business in the state felt that given the poor state of the realty business it was important to perhaps take a look at the regulation and perhaps bring it on par with the rest of the country.
Modi, he said had talked about building smart cities but Goa was not mentioned in it and the state would have to work hard on improving its infrastructure.
Deepak Cholera a builder based in Vasco however said the present market was a realistic market with actual users now coming into the market to buy houses.
Perhaps the final word should go to a real estate operator who did not want to come on record and said that the market was undergoing a correction and those who could hang in there would reap the rewards in the long run because he felt it was a long race with profits for those who could last the course.
