'Sticker Shock' Jolts Home Buyers

Absurdly high prices for residential property have reached a point where consumers are pushing back.

- GURBIR SINGH

Both home sales and new construction have taken a hit in the first six months of the current calendar year, and the downward trend is likely to continue for some time.

In what industry pundits are calling the 'sticker shock,' first-time home buyers are flabbergasted by the high prices quoted by builders. Many are withdrawing from the market; some are continuing to rent; others are licking their wounds and saving their fight for another day.

Sample these: The Aditya Birla Group's Niyaara project in Worli, Mumbai—three residential towers on land that was once Century Textile Mills—has priced two-bed apartments under 1,000 sq ft between ₹6.5 and ₹10 crore. A broker's flyer sent to this writer quoted a Niyaara four-bed, 3,034 sq ft duplex flat at ₹30.82 crore! Jasdan Heights, a Prestige Group project near Mahalaxmi, is pegging a three-bed apartment at ₹8.5 crore. Effectively, these under-construction projects cost an outrageous ₹65,000 to ₹1 lakh per square foot.

Pune, which has a robust middle-income residential property market, has recently been in the news for falling sales. From January to June of this year, there were just 33,510 units sold—a 29 percent drop from the 44,135 units sold in the same January-June period of 2024.

Calling it a 'sticker shock,' Pune developer Rohit Gera likened it to going to buy a bottle of shampoo, but then walking away after seeing a price tag of ₹1,200.

Falling sales