News: Market alert - Delay now, regret later!-08.01.2017

Date created 08.01.2017 19:16:52

Market alert - Delay now, regret later!

Realty experts believe that the more you postpone your home-buying decision, the harder it becomes to secure your dream house. Hence, the right time to purchase is now!

Sitting in the drawing room of your own house, sipping a hot cup of tea and watching TV an ideal way to kick-start your Sunday morning, right? But how many of us get the chance to live this beautiful scene? The numbers don't seem very favourable. So, why do we deprive ourselves and our family of these little joys of life? Why do we keep delaying the most important decision of our lives? Contrary to popular perception, our experts believe that the best time to buy your own house is at an early age, at the beginning of your career, as the more you delay the decision, the more unaffordable the house will become.

Realty experts point out that the more you keep pushing the idea of purchasing your own house, the more you lose out on the chance to purchase an apartment in your desired locality. Despite a series of slowdowns, Mumbai is still one of the most expensive realty markets in the country. Hence, postponing the home-buying decision could make the situation even more difficult in a city like Mumbai, where options are very limited in comparison to other realty destinations.

"The primary stumbling block for first-time homebuyers in the MMR has so far been affordability. Mumbai's residential property prices are unnaturally high, even after the recent corrections. The second challenge is finding a home, which actually meets one's requirements. As in every other city, homebuyers in Mumbai want properties, which allow them a reasonably easy commute to and from work every day," explains Ramesh Nair, COO business and international director, JLL India.

Delaying a decision could further make home-buying tougher:

Experts believe that home buying can be understood as the most serious purchase for any individual, especially for the first-time home-buyer. The most important factor is to understand your requirements such as budget, size of the house, location, amenities and other necessities within the vicinity such as school, transportation, recreational parks among others. Due to the fast metropolitan lifestyle, with hours of travelling and time constraints, managing all aspects of life becomes tedious. Plus, the process of buying a home if you are a first-time home-buyer is very stressful. Hence, it's important to chalk out all the parameters initially.

"Mumbai's real estate market is always a high demand market and hence, decision-making has to be made at the earliest to avail the best possible pricing. Apart from the pricing, location and the amenities on offer, the vicinity of the projects should also be taken into consideration. Hence, delaying a decision at times, leads to missing out on the opportunity and creates several other issues as well," explains Tejas Vyas, chairman exhibition committee, MCHI-CREDAI.

Waiting for a correction in residential prices in Mumbai is like gambling in a game with a loaded dice the chances of winning are extremely remote. According to experts, there are periods, which favour the buyers but they usually are short windows of opportunity. Identifying how long these periods will last is extremely challenging for buyers who are not intimately familiar with how this city's property market works and what the constantly fluctuating factors that influence its pricing dynamics are. Waiting for more favourable prices often means that one misses out on the few opportunities that currently exist.

The drawbacks:

Key drawbacks of delaying the home-buying decision in Mumbai are: One can see an increase in the prices if home-buying is delayed; The chances of finding the right apartment in your favourite locality may diminish; Changes in loan pricing and buyer's credit score may also create problems in the future; Difficulty in finding the right developer, once the decision is delayed, may take place.

Why now?

"Owing a first home allows a lot of tax exemptions. The interest payments on mortgages are tax deductible to a certain degree. Mortgages are available in the affordable housing sector for upto 90 percent of the value of the property, which in effect, means that you just get a leverage of nine times that too at approximately nine percent, for 20-30 years, which is not only a very long duration, but also a comparatively very low interest rate in comparison to a business loan," says Rohit Poddar, MD, Poddar Housing & Development Ltd. Experts argue that real estate is a tangible, and a very safe haven for investment, hence as a potential home-buyer, you must not delay your purchase.

The right age to buy a home in Mumbai:

Experts point out that the best time to make a purchase decision is within a couple of years of beginning a stable career. The other option is to wait a few years to build a decent corpus to be able to make a sizeable down-payment, so as to reduce the burden of the home loan.

However, this approach again invites the danger of missing the opportunity to buy into a fairly good location. But as they say, better late than never.

One can either think of it before getting married or planning a family. Buying a house can be a very time-consuming exercise, which can last anywhere between two and three months.

Procrastination is the thief of time, they say. Therefore, why procrastinate and bear repercussions later when the real estate environment is only awaiting you to knock on its door?

Amit Sethi, Times Property, The Times of India, Mumbai