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Political violence batters real estate

Suman Saha
The ongoing political violence has emerged as the latest bottleneck to real estate already weighed down by the higher lending rates, industry people said.
"We have been hit hard by the political turbulence. The customers are simply not placing any new bookings," said M Wahiduzzaman, general secretary of Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh (REHAB).
In recent times, the interest rates on loans to buy properties have climbed to upwards of 18 percent. Moreover, there is a ceiling for equity and loan (65:35) ratio for buyers, meaning that a buyer has to pay Tk 65 lakh against a loan of Tk 35 lakh to purchase a flat worth Tk 1 crore.
This, along with the frequent shutdowns and blockades, has brought about a decline in apartment sales upwards of 50
percent, he said. At present, there are around 20,000 unsold flats in the country, mainly in Dhaka and Chittagong, according to Rehab.
"The year 2013 has been the worst for real estate sector," Toufiq M Seraj, managing director of Sheltech (Pvt) Ltd, said. The situation is so dire that he deems a price correction to be not sufficient to raise the demand.
Sheltech is now sitting on around 335 saleable apartments ranging from 805-2,225 sq ft, with another 884 units under construction.
"There used to be a time when we sold flats at the under-construction level. Now, we are facing cancellation of booked flats," added the Sheltech MD.
Tanveerul Haque Probal, a former REHAB president, said real estate buyers are now waiting for the political crisis to stabilise.
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Meanwhile, the sluggish trend in sales has started to hit the realtors' wallet, with many struggling to repay their bank loans, according to Probal, also the managing director of Building For Future Ltd. The company has stopped taking on new projects for six months now.
The high interest rate is not helping matters, either real estate developers now pay 18 percent or more in interest rates for bank loans, up from 14-15 percent a year ago.
The real-estate sector now contributes to up to 15 percent of the country's GDP, employing around one lakh skilled people and 35 lakh in the linkage industries, according to industry people.
suman.saha@thedailystar.net