Real estate price index may be based on 13-city data

The real estate price index, to be finalised by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), should be based on property prices in 13 cities, a committee has recommended.

The committee, which has submitted its report to RBI, has said the house price data can be collected from Greater Mumbai, Chennai, the National Capital Region of Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune, Jaipur, Greater Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Bhopal and Bhubaneswar.

The expert group, which was formed by the central bank in December 2008 for developing the information system on asset pricing, said the central bank needed to track both sale/resale price index as well as the rent index of real estate prices on a regular basis.

“Considering the practical difficulty of collection of house rent data, the Group recommends using official data on house rent index of Consumer Price Index (Urban), being compiled by Central Statistical Organisation,” the panel said in its report.The committee has also said it was necessary to supplement bank data through a survey conducted annually so as to ensure robustness of the data available with the banking system.