Credai to come up with their own data for real estate sector

Data will include the inventory, new launches, absorption and other related parameters

Credai, an all-India organisation of real estate developers, has decided to start its own data mining system in the next few months, aiming to give an “exact picture” of the sector across the country. So far, only consulting and research companies have been coming up with data on the sector.    

In other sectors such as telecom and automobiles, industry associations release monthly data detailing new phone subscribers or car sale numbers. The proposed data from Credai will cover inventory, new launches, absorption and parameters related to pricing of units.

Credai is looking to partner a third-party agency, which will authenticate the data given by its 11,500 members/developers spread across the country, the association president Geetamber Anand told Business Standard.

The need to come up with its own set of data was prompted by varying figures from real estate consultants including KnightFrank, JLL India, Liases Foras and others, at times triggering  panic among home buyers, he said. “We will have direct information from our members and we are looking for a bonafide partner who will authenticate the data. This will present an actual picture among the buyers and the investors,” Anand said.

A report by JLL India last month, advising home buyers to avoid certain locations in Delhi-National Capital Region, had angered developers. The advisory was because of delays in projects delivery, oversupply, speculation and lack of infrastructure. Also, many consultants predict lowering of prices in the near future, making buyers wait and thereby causing the sales to slow down. “Many experts have recently predicted dip in prices in the residential real estate segment, which has not gone down well with developers as the increase in input and labour costs along with exorbitant land prices do not give any scope to them for a cut in the prices,” an executive from a real estate company said.

Rather than resorting to direct price cuts, developers have been offering freebies and attractive financial schemes to lure buyers in a slow market. The real estate market has slowed down over the last few years. Developers are facing huge liquidity crunch because of declining sales and banks and financial institutions reluctance to fund the realty sector. All this has led to high inventory levels across the country.

With declining sales, inventory level is also on an all-time high. Data from research firm Liases Foras shows 71 months of inventory in the NCR, followed by 46 months in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and 36 months in Chennai for the January-March quarter. Inventory is the number of months needed to clear the stock at the existing absorption rate. A healthy market maintains eight to 12 months of inventory.

Though, Anand, refuses to believe such high inventory numbers and said will soon come out with actual numbers.