People fear Telangana may hit realty prices

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Hyderabad: The registration for houses has witnessed a sudden slump in the state recently. Is it because the people are wary of buying properties owing to the rumours that a likely decision on a separate state of Telangana might affect the real estate prices? People by and large admit that they have postponed their plans to buy property in view of a likely decision on Telangana.
Officials and real estate developers, however, refuse to buy the logic although they admit that there has been a slump in real estate market in the first quarter of the current fiscal. But they attribute the trend to the revision of property registration prices.
“The real estate prices have recorded slump after property registration charges were revised three months ago. Consequently, the government’s revenue from property registration had dropped by nearly 20 per cent in the first quarter of the current fiscal. In that connection, they cite the examples of the areas like Serilingampally and Shamshabad. The same was the case with areas like Gandipet, Qutubullapur,” officials said.
“The revision of registration prices didn’t just have an effect on the government’s revenue, it also resulted in the people by and large not buying property”, said S. Ashok, registrar, Rangareddy district.
He hoped that the trend would reverse in the next quarter and the deficit would be recovered. Officials said that a likely decision on the demand for Telangana had got nothing to do with slump in real estate. Real estate developers also agree to that.
“A decision likely to be taken by the Centre on the long pending Telanga issue has got nothing to down with slum in real estate prices”, said Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India president C. Shekhar Reddy.
He admitted that the real estate market in the state was facing slump. “Developers are selling real estate properties on a cost to cost basis and there are no profit margins”, he said.
Citizens, however, appear wary of carrying out any property related transaction at this stage. “I will think of investing in property only after a decision on Telangana,” said A. Hari Prasad, a hydro electricity consultant.
Financial experts admitted that people were preferring liquidity than immovable property at this point in time. Srinivas Ayyadevaraya, president, Federation of Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said, “Economic recession coupled with liquidity crunch has had an adverse affect on the real estate market.”