Babus, teachers lead the realty charge

Scene 1: A wellknown college of Delhi University. A marketing executive of a noted realty firm is talking to a senior staff member of the college. He is inquiring from the college staff, especially those in the faculty, whether they are keen to purchase a flat in either Indirapuram or Ghaziabad.

Scene two: A marketing executive of another real estate firm is talking to government employees in the oil ministry during the lunch break. The topic is identical. He was trying to convince them that they must buy their own house in NCR as realtors have reduced rates on their flats, and banks too had cut the interest rates on home loans.

A spokesman of State Bank of India admits that during the last couple of months, or shortly after the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission report, they are receiving a lot of home loan related queries from government employees. Already, many ‘sarkari babus’ have taken loans for brand new homes from SBI.

Clearly, the good hike in salaries of government employees has created a silver lining in the otherwise gloomy realty sector. As if this were not enough, the huge increase in salaries for Delhi University, JNU and Jamia Millia Islamia University staff can provide a good push to realty market of NCR, says Sunil Jindal, director of SVP Builders. He adds: “We are trying to convince those who have still not purchased a flat in either Delhi or in NCR that this is a great time for them to own a flat. Even if they have a house, they should think of buying another one for investment purpose.”

So, is the profile of buyers in realty market witnessing a sea change? “Absolutely”, says Devender Gupta of realty advisory Century 21 India, adding, “there is a change in the profile of home buyers. As recently as seven-eight months ago, young professionals were the most avid buyers of houses and apartments all the metros and in NCR too. They were working for big-ticket companies. After the economic slowdown, these people have taken a back seat. They have deferred their plans to buy houses, as many of them have lost the jobs or they suffered a pay cut. The current situation is all the realtors are wooing the sarkari babus and the staff of Delhibased central universities.”

Talking about his plans to buy a dream home, a section officer in the petroleum ministry says that after the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission report, he and his wife decided to buy their own house in Indirapuram. After a thorough survey of several builder flats, they finally decided to book a twobedroom house. “I will retire after six years and have to vacate my Gole Market house. Since we are financially better placed now, we thought we should book a house. If we fail even this time, we will never able to buy a house,” says this officer.

Apart from government employees and teachers, a huge chunk of PSU employees are also seen as potential buyers of new flats. “We all know that they (PSU employees) have not been affected by the slowdown. Their salaries have gone up and they have no fear of losing jobs. We are hoping they will book our flats in bulk. In that situation, we can offer them good discounts,” says Sanjeev Srivastava, managing director of Assotech.

Meanwhile, the home loan related queries from media, marketing, IT, and to some extent from finance professionals, have taken a huge nose-dive. If Pramod Chopra of LIC Housing Finance Ltd is to be believed, these professionals are perhaps facing the real heat of the slowdown. They have almost stopped making calls over home loan related queries. Given the fact that many of them have lost their jobs in recent months, it is but natural they can’t think of buying a house now.

So, it appears as though the only segments aggressively pursuing their ‘sweet home’ dreams are those of the ‘sarkari babus’ and the college teachers.

Source: Times of India