It is Festive season and real estate developers are looking to cash it in. Many property developers are planning to launch new projects during this period. The festive season, which usually begins late September with the Hindufestival of Navratra and continues up to Christmas, often sees higher sales of property. According to Mumbai-based Lodha Developers director Abhisheck Lodha, property firms usually make 30% of their sales in one-and-a-half month between Navratra and Diwali.

Mr Lodha is planning to launch two new projects, comprising apartments priced over Rs 1 crore, in Mumbai’s suburbs of Andheri and Thane. Similarly in Delhi, DLF is preparing to launch over 1,500 apartments in a new project. DLF says it is yet to fix a price or number of apartments to be sold for the project, but brokers on behalf of DLF are offering apartments at a 30% premium to the first phase price. According to DLF executive director Rajiv Talwar, “If a location has a very good demand and not enough supply, prices will go up,” Delhi may be one such market.

But price rise is not something many are really betting on. Housing demand is not going to rise dramatically in a hurry according to market experts. The market remains price-sensitive and any attempt at price hike will adversely impact demand.

Mr. Niranjan Hiranandani, managing director of Hiranandani Group, one of Mumbai’s biggest real estate developers says “The market has just recovered and buyers are returning.” And it is not very wise to increase prices drastically now.

International real estate consultancy DTZ India director Ambar Maheshwari says it’s still a delicate situation in the property market. Developers still carry a lot of debt despite a string of QIPs and need steady cash flow to service that. Several listed realty firms, including Unitech, Indiabulls real estate and HDIL, have in the past six months raised funds via qualified institutional placement route. But this festive season, unlike last year, home buyers may not get many freebies. “Developers’ margins have shrunk and there is little scope for freebies, even though in some cases, one would see such offers,” says NCR-based Supertech CMD R K Arora, who is offering free ACs in one of his projects