Gurgaon: Years of slowdown in the real estate sector has piled up unsold inventory of residential units in Gurgaon, one of the major markets in the country.
As per the economic survey, some 50,000 unsold inventory of residential houses is available in Gurgaon, of which 65% are under construction and around 15,500 are ready to move in.
This year's economic survey has highlighted that Mumbai has the highest share of vacant houses among 19 major cities while Gurgaon ranks first in terms of the share of vacant houses to the residential stock in the city. "In terms of share of vacant houses to total residential stock, Gurgaon ranks highest (26%)," says the report.
The survey indicates that a majority of the unsold stocks are in new sectors 74-113. "Southern Peripheral Road and
Dwarka expressway constitute a major chunk of unsold and vacant housing stocks," said Navdeep
Sardana, founder & CEO of Elite Landbase, a real estate consultant.
"There are negligible new launches in the past few years and most of the unsold stocks are in projects which are at different stages of construction," he said.
According to experts, in the past few years, buyers have moved to commercial properties instead of the earlier trend of booking residential properties. This is mainly because of better returns in commercial properties, which has impacted investment in residential units.
"Over the past two years, commercial properties especially hi-street retail and pre-leased properties have done very good business owing to assured returns, yielding rental and regular income and appreciation scope," said Sardana adding that appreciation in the residential segment is not as it was earlier.
Anuj Puri of ANAROCK Property Consultants attributed massive supply in the areas to the unsold housing units. "Lack of adherence to stipulated timelines for completion of Dwarka expressway and housing projects has also restricted the movement in real estate sector," he said.
"High-end projects, big ticket-size sales impacted due to demonetisation and other structural changes," he added.
Anshuman Magazine, chairman for India and South East Asia -CBRE, said, "People from across the country and even abroad have invested in the
NCR and Gurgaon, in particular.
"These people are not residents of NCR and neither have they rented out their house for some or other reasons. This is the reason for high vacancy."
"It will take some time for residential real estate segment to pick up. The prices are too high and investors have moved to other sectors due to new regulations," he added.
