Houses to cost more this year: report

People in India will have to shell out more money to buy a house this year due to increasing input costs and huge demand and supply gap, a report said today.

"About 70 per cent of the home seekers are pretty convinced that they will have to shell more money to buy a house in 2011, as compared to last few years," Track2Realty, a real estate market tracker, said in its report.

The survey was conducted in 10 major Indian cities including Delhi, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Chenai and Allahabad.

Majority of the brokers and property agents said that the property prices would remain bullish in 2011 mainly on account of "huge demand and supply gap and ever increasing input cost".

The report also said that those planning to sell houses this year would get higher returns.

About 72 per cent believe that if they missed the chance to buy a house now, "they may not be able to but it ever", it added.

Real estate developers and consultants yesterday said that the RBI's decision to hike policy rates by 25 basis points will affect the sentiment of the property market.

The RBI has raised short-term lending and borrowing rates by 25 basis points each.