February 26, New Delhi: A lot is being discussed over the delay in the completion of large residential projects on time. Further, falling prices of housing compared to other investment instruments, lenders unwillingness to dig deep into their pockets, and moreover unsold inventories have only added fuel to builders’ woe.
According to a recent survey by property consultant, Anarock, it took an average time of 6.5 years for builders to complete large residential projects in the top-seven cities — Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), National Capital Region (NCR), and Pune — between 2010 and 2019.
Of the top seven cities, Hyderabad completed large projects with an average time of 5.4 years, Bengaluru in 5.5 years, Chennai in 5.6 years, Pune in 6.2 years, Kolkata in 6.3 years, MMR in 6.5 years, while NCR trailed at last with 7.2 years.
Collectively, top-seven cities completed large residential projects comprising 500 units each at an average time of 6.5 years during the period. It’s research claims that there are more than 6.48 lakh-unsold units across the top seven cities.
Anuj Puri, chairman of Anarock says land litigation issues, developers' lack of professionalism in project delivery, and also the periodic construction bans by both National Green Tribunal (NGT) and the apex court were the main reasons for NCR to trail behind on large residential project completion.
“With effective implementation of RERA, and stringent policies, completion timelines will improve in the new decade. Builders have already started to limit their new supply and instead are laser-focussed on project completions. This will effectively help in bringing down the project completion timelines,” Puri said.