Akshaya Tritiya: Is it the best time to purchase your dream house?

People from across the country are celebrating Akshaya Tritiya today, which is considered as one of the most auspicious days to buy gold and property. During this period, demand for gold, particularly physical gold in the form of jewellery, bars and coins usually witnesses a huge rise. However, buying real estate too is one of the things that is recommended. So, coming to property, most of us aspire to own a house and to achieve that goal we strive hard through our savings and investments. Can this Akshaya Tritiya be the best time for you to purchase your own dream house? A Zricks.com report explains, why on this auspicious occasion, one should to purchase property rather than opt for gold. 

According to them, although gold is a favourite form of investment, it offers lesser versatility as compared to real estate. Also, property prices are at lower levels currently, and this market is less volatile. Apart from this, one can enjoy purchasing a house right now, as in future the prices may go up making it too expensive to buy. Not only this, real estate can also be a medium for income generation as the house can be kept on rent. 

Therefore, compared with gold, shares and other similar investment platforms real estate tends to win, simply as it is less volatile. 

Going ahead, here’s why property should be purchased during this time. 

Builders have been struggling over last few years due to certain moves by the government like demonetisation, Goods and Service Tax (GST), amendment in RERA law and Insolvency code. This has resulted in property prices in the country correcting as much as 3% on an average basis in second half of 2017. 

Another reason to purchase property this Akshaya Tritiya would be that there are indications you may face a situation where property prices have spiked in the near future.
Elsewhere, RBI has maintained the policy repo rate unchanged for fourth  time in a row, but this did not stop banks from increasing interest rates for a list of groups. After increasing MCLR by 20 basis points, the largest lender SBI recently raised base rate and benchmark prime lending rate (BPLR) by 5 basis point. 

Other banks also followed suit and even NBFCs started increasing their lending rates. HDFC, the largest mortgage provider, increased retail prime lending rate by 20 bps from April 01. 
 
Surendra Hiranandani, CMD, House of Hiranandani said in PropTiger.com report, ‘This year, the festival is well timed as several initiatives taken by the government over the last year has made it a buyer-friendly market.”

It is being known that, developers are sitting with 0.5 million units of unsold inventory in major cities.  This gives buyers a chance to select ready-to-move-in units at comparatively affordable prices. 

Furthermore, did you know there are list of offers you can avail while purchasing a home this Akshaya Tritiya, as per Makaan.com report.

1. GST waiver: For homebuyers interested in investing in under-construction properties, some developers are waiving off GST charges, bringing down the total cost of the property.

2. Free stamp duty and registration fee: Such offers are made widely in the state of Maharashtra. Stamp duty, which roughly accounts for five per cent of the property value, and one per cent registration fee is offered as a discount to the homebuyers.
 
3. Discounted base price:  Few developers are offering discounts on the base price. This varies up to 20 per cent of the actual value of the property.

4. Free goodies: Modular kitchen, electrical appliances, woodwork furnishing, gold coin, vehicle, etc., are some of the free freebies offered by the developers depending on the ticket size. Homebuyers can choose these freebies to bring down the total cost of buying a home.