Saturday, April 17, 2010

Avoid realty at this point of time: Elara Capital

With interest rates hardening, the funds flowing into the real estate space could become a problem, real estate IPOs have also not been getting too much of attraction. Do you think this is something that will not reflect in the stock prices? 


Per se if you look at it the whole space there were two things. There was one which was a demand issue, one was the price correction. The other was stretch balance sheets. So intermittent corrections on expectations of capital being raised and the balance sheets getting corrected might see small stocks perch in some of the selective places but if you are looking to invest in a space where the opportunity or outlook is firm, I do not think the Indian realty space at this point of time is a space to be in. 

Secondly, if you look at it typically, real estate cycles have a global linkage. If China is also going to correct its property bubble because of overheating and secularly the real estate markets worldwide are down, I do not see a reason why we should see a sharp jump up here given that affordability is an issue even now. So yes, we would stick to our view and we would not play for the small arbitrages as well.