Mumbai realty gives affordability the go-by

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Mr Pankaj Kapoor, Managing Director of property consultant firm Liases Foras, said the prices are so high that “no one can buy”. Of course, if one limits his options, he can move that much further into the suburbs looking for properties that match his budget, he added.

Mr Kapoor said that while the average cost of an apartment in Greater Mumbai (municipal limits) was Rs 27 lakh in January 2004, it skyrocketed to Rs 1.47 crore in November 2008, slipped marginally to Rs 1.28 crore in June 2009 (when a correction set in) only to spiral to Rs 2.03 crore in September 2010.

Now, the preferred route for PE is akin to that of home buyers.

They move in at the project conceptualisation stage and book a definite number of flats or units for about 25 per cent down-payment at a pre-agreed price.

Property registration data for Mumbai indicate that after hitting a peak in property sales in December 2009, the subsequent monthly sales continued to decline till June 2010. While about 9,000 registrations were recorded in December 2009, only about 6,000 were recorded in February 2010. Preliminary field data show that there were only 4,500 registrations in May 2010, he said.