Bengaluru realty prices `real', will not fall: Prestige

Bengaluru real estate market has not fallen to the extent that is seen in the NCR region. However there is a slow down; the residential market saw a minor sequential pick up in the April-June quarter. With unsold inventory of 30 months in Q1 CY15, demand for property -- particularly that of high-value products -- has seen a steady contraction.However, the demand contraction problem is company specific. Prestige Estates, for instance has had a good FY15. The company reported sales of Rs 5013 crore and launched 14.63 million sq ft of real estate last fiscal, in line with its projected targets.Speaking to CNBC-TV18,  Irfan Razack, CMD of Bengaluru based Prestige Estates said "the on-ground reality is quite good. The question of prices falling does not arise because they really never went overboard. In Bengaluru market what we have is real prices which is component of land cost plus construction cost plus the developer margin which is pretty thin. So, may be in the secondary market wherever things have gone up or somebody wants to get out will do a deal. But otherwise things seems to be quite good. I foresee good times going ahead also in the next few quarters." Speaking about the slowdown, he said longer-than-expected approval process has been a hindrance in the last couple of quarters. "Hence, coming to market with a new product, which we were doing on a regular basis, has slowed down a bit. But then I think we have to take that in our stride and make sure that everything is in place and then do any new launch, there will be quite a good demand."