At a time when residential property sales are sluggish in several parts of the country and have even dropped in some parts, the Pune home market rules steady.
Moreover, the super-luxury home segment is doing well.
In Pune, this segment has houses which come for more than Rs 5 crore a unit and apartments ranging from 2,500 sq. ft to 7,000 sq. ft that cost upwards of Rs 10,000 a sq. ft.
On an average, around 2 crore sq. ft of residential space is under construction in the city at any time. Of this, only 15-18 lakh sq. ft is in the absolute luxury segment, says Mr Ravi Varma, a realtor and past President of the National Association of Realtors.
This is why there is no slowdown visible in this space, he explains, adding that most properties are sold out at the pre-launch stage itself.
New projects
The mix of buyers in this segment includes an equal number from within the city as from outside.
“Puneites are used to spacious homes. These large apartments give them both this as well as security which new intelligent homes offer,” observes Mr Varma.
Mumbaikars, on the other hand, find that properties here are more affordable than in the metro. New projects of super-luxury homes in the making include Trump Towers, a project by Panchshil Developers' at Kalyani Nagar; Marvel's Aurum in Koregaon Park; and Avinash Bhosale Group's Castel Royale in Khadki.
Another area where the soaring price of land puts homes in the Rs 5-crore bracket is Prabhat Road and the leafy lanes leading away from it, where several sprawling old bungalows are making way for high-end apartments.
At least half a dozen projects are currently underway, with prices ranging from Rs 15,000 to Rs 17,000 a sq. ft.
Head winds
Mr Sunil Rohokale, CEO and MD, ASK Investment Holdings Private Ltd, which has invested in the city, believes that high-end apartments (costing Rs 1-crore-plus) are seeing a huge resistance.
“The Pune market is seeing good absorption for apartments that cost between Rs 3,500 and Rs 6,000 per sq. ft,” he says.
“It is no secret that real estate segment is cash-strapped, as much money has gone into assets that are long-term and are liabilities in the short term,” he avers, adding that this has created head winds for high-end apartments.
The good news, according to him, is that the interest rates have peaked and are not expected to go up any further. This spells more action in the real estate sector in the months to come.