Hyderabad breaks negative streak in real estate: Survey

Breaking a "largely negative streak" on account of the Telangana issue, the report stated, Hyderabad's HSI ended close to neutral. The report covered 10 cities, including Hyderabad, across the country

In spite of impending bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, the housing sentiment index (HSI) of Hyderabad has increased 22 per cent to 101 in the third quarter of the current financial year, according to a report by IIM Bangalore (IIM-B) and property portal Magicbricks.com.

The IIM-B and Magicbricks HSI is a sentiment index of the Indian real estate market that aims to capture buyer mood and serve as an indicator of real estate estate market performance. The first HSI report was released in October 2013 for the July-September quarter.

The value of HSI ranges from 0 to 200. A score of 100 indicates neutrality, meaning people don’t expect house prices to either increase or decrease. A score above 100 indicates optimism and a score below 100 denotes pessimism. While 0 indicates all respondents expect house prices to decrease, a score of 200 indicates that all respondents expect prices to increase.

The sample size of the online survey was 3,000 buyers. The surveyors stated that the respondents assess relative market conditions based on common knowledge and from price expectations  for the next six months.

Breaking a “largely negative streak” on account of the Telangana issue, the report stated, Hyderabad’s HSI ended close to neutral. It covered 10 cities, including Hyderabad, across the country.

As per the report, Noida topped the list of cities with an HSI of 129 witnessing 33 per cent jump over the previous quarter. On the other hand, the sentiments were muted in Mumbai  with an HSI of 85. The aggregate HSI of all the 10 cities had increased to 117 in the third quarter from 93 in the previous quarter.

Properties in the Rs 20-40 lakh range were stated to be preferred with over 30 per cent of buyers.

The report, however, pointed out that given the high construction costs, steady inflation, increasing bank loan rates and the looming elections, buyers were likely to use extreme caution before investing in property in the coming years.

Magicbricks business head, Sudhir Pai, said it would take another six-nine months for active interest in buying activity to rise as consumers expect prices to go up only after 6 months, post 2014 elections.