Status quo on rates may help real estate recovery: Experts

NEW DELHI: RBI’s decision to leave key interest rates unchanged is expected to help the ongoing recovery in the real estate sector, experts said on Thursday. Niranjan Hiranandani of Hiranandani Group and National vice-chairman of Naredco said the RBI decision will help create demand and supply in the real estate sector. “As a snowball effect, the respite in home loan interest rate will augur well to fuel an uptick in housing sales across the segments,” he said.

Anshuman Magazine, chairman & CEO India, southeast Asia, Middle East & Africa, CBRE, also said that continuing the status quo on the monetary policy, after a substantial decline in inflation in April, signals sustained support forgrowth amidst a persistent need for caution.

Hiranandani said the easing inflation, stable home loan rates, conducive real estate market dynamics in the backdrop of buoyancy in GDP growth and availability of sufficient liquidity would drive domestic demand further.

Reflecting a similar view, Anuj Puri, chairman of Anarock Group, also said the unchanged repo rate would help maintain the momentum in housing sales, which has beenfiring on all cylinders in 2023.

According to Anarock Research, housing sales in the first quarter of 2023 scaled new heights, breaching the 1-lakh mark at over 1. 1 lakh units in top 7 cities — Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, and Kolkata. Boman Irani, president of Credai National, said, “On the back of RBI’s decision to maintain the repo rate at 6. 5%, we expect both housing supply and demand to sustain its ongoing momentum. ”