Housing prices likely to remain stable: JLLM

Realty consultancy firm Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj (JLLM) today said it expects housing prices to remain stable during the current year as any further increase will lead to fall in demand.

JLLM said the prices in the housing segment went up by 15 per cent in 2009, but still lower from the peak level of 2007.

"Ideally, prices of residential segment should stabilise in this year. If developers increase the price, the demand will go down," JLLM country head Anuj Puri told PTI.

The demand for housing has started coming back although the sector has not completely recovered from the downturn, he added.
    
"The demand is more seen in the range of Rs 25-30 lakh. The luxury segment is also coming back but with a slow pace," Puri said.
    
On the commercial segment, he said that it has not yet recovered and prices are still down with fear of oversupply looming large.
    
"Since the peak of 2007, the prices have dropped by up to 30 per cent in retail and office spaces, and it has not yet picked up. Demand is slowly coming back," Puri said.
    
"There is huge oversupply in the office and retail segment which will take at least a year to be absorbed," Puri said, adding the prices of the commercial spaces are likely to pick up from the first quarter of next year.