We spoke to some industry leaders to find out what their view is for Real Estate in 2018 and as part of the same, here’s what Ms. Sunaina Kohli, Assistant Vice President, House of Hiranandani

1. Real Estate is a heterogeneous product and returns depends on various aspects such as location, construction, economic scenario and so on. Some cities and micro-markets in cities simply perform better because of factors like affordability, job creation and infrastructure deployment, especially in terms of connectivity
2. Some of the several policy actions and initiatives rolled out by the incumbent government—especially demonetization and Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (RERA)—resulted in a temporary slowdown in real estate activity and sentiment
4. Demand graph is expected to grow in ready to move in and OC received properties
5. The real estate developers in the country are expecting the market to move up in the first quarter of the next financial year after the current issues like GST are resolved
6. The Pradhan Mantri Awaz Yojana which offers credit linked subsidy scheme will help boost the housing in the affordable segment
7. The five-pronged approach by the govt comprising of demonetization, RERA, GST, Home loan rate cut and affordable housing push is geared to bring the mojo back into the industry
8. In the next fiscal (Apr 2018-March 2019), there is a good chance that the industry may see new launches
9. The demand should comprise a significant portion of solid end-users
10. As foreign institutional investors (FII) and private equity funds (PE FUNDS) start entering the space – after clean-up and with a price increase imminent in FY18-19 – prices may start rising and domestic retail investors will come back, with prospects for capital appreciation returning to this asset class
11. Real estate investment trusts (REITs) did not take off this year as expected.  REITs are set to provide investment opportunities to smaller investors next year. India’s real estate markets are poised for growth in the medium-to-long term on the back of higher transparency and further consolidation