A Buyer's Market

Green shoots emerge for residential real estate, but it isn’t out of the woods.

- Goutam Das

HALF AN HOUR BEFORE SCRIBES and cameramen landed, three posters are put up at the basement hall of a Noida hotel. In the centre is a large horizontal one, in saffron, white and green background. It has 31 clenched fists printed; the messages are in bold fonts.

‘92% of the home buyers voice POSSESSION’.

‘We demand quick delivery of our homes’.

‘Delay compensation’.

‘New builder with strong financial strength.’

‘No Japyee (JAL)’.

‘No Liquidation (JIL)’. JAL and JIL are related. That is at the heart of the problem.

Jaiprakash Associates Ltd (JAL) is the promoter for Jaypee Infratech Limited (JIL), which developed the spectacular 165-kilometre long Yamuna Expressway connecting Noida and Agra. JIL also promised spectacular houses along the Expressway – “planned, integrated, modern residential” cities and those that include “landscaped parks, gardens, multiple clubhouses with swimming pools, fitness, recreational, institutional facilities, amenities and commercial developments”.

People rushed to book. Parent JAL was a reasonably known name in the echelons of corporate India with businesses in engineering & construction, power, cement, hospitality, IT, sports, education, besides roadways and real estate. In the minds of home buyers, it was “too big to fail”.