Thanks to rapid urbanisation and expansion, Pune housing rates grew one of the fastest among the big cities according to the National Housing Bank’s (NHB) Residex 2017, for both HPI@Assessment Prices and HPI@Market Prices for under construction properties, its benchmark index for tracking real estate prices in 26 cities. 

For 2016, Pune housing rates grew second-fastest in the country after Guwahati, according to the National Housing Bank’s (NHB) Residex, its benchmark index for tracking real estate prices in 26 cities.

Real estate prices in Guwahati rose nine per cent, while Pune witnessed an eight per cent rise in the January-March quarter of 2015.

“The Residex data only confirms Pune as India’s best bet at present for real estate investment. In fact, all other large cities have been showing a decline in property valuations,” said Arvind Jain, Managing Director, Pride Group.

According to NHB data, Pune’s inventory of unsold residential stock is 13 months’ worth, which is low compared to other cities.

“This is owing to the fact that consumption of residential real estate in Pune continued to be robust even during the lowest point of the national real estate slowdown,” said Mr Jain.

Meanwhile, Mumbai and Delhi NCR, the country’s two largest markets, fared poorly. Mumbai showed a growth of four per cent, Delhi NCR saw a decline of 4.5 per cent.

According to property analysts, Pune continued to perform better than other cities as investors had steered clear of non-lucrative propositions. The city’s recent inclusion in the ‘Smart Cities Mission’ list, coupled with the right positioning of vital drivers such as manufacturing, information technology, services, and hospitality, will contribute to the city’s real estate valuations, experts said.

Integrated townships

With Pune’s top developers focusing on ‘integrated townships’, the result is that the once-small city is now bursting at the seams, expanding its boundaries to open up new real estate investment precincts. However, as a caveat, Mr Jain said that not all property investments in Pune will yield the same results.

“Investors must be alert about the legal antecedents of projects and their developers, especially in the cheaper outskirts,” Mr Jain said.

“The high incidence of illegal residential constructions on Pune’s peripherals is no secret. Conducting a complete background check on developers with no established market record, and a thorough due diligence on the legality of their projects, is extremely important.”

The NHB Residex was launched in July 2007 to track the movement in prices of residential properties of 16 cities on a quarterly basis.

The number was then increased to 20, and from 2013, the ambit of the Residex has been expanded to include six new cities: Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Dehradun, Meerut, Nagpur, and Raipur, taking the total to 26.

Source: The Hindu, March 11, 2016 and  NHB RESIDEX 2017