Donald Trump Jr has an interesting tip for all concerned. He acknowledged recently that “smart real estate professionals invest when real estate prices are low and sell when prices are high; the trick is in estimating when the market would bottom-out, before your competitors.”
Most commentators believe that sentiment has and is still playing a key role in the real estate markets instead of investors and developers relying more on fundamentals. Commenting on the global outlook for 2009, Graham Wood, exhibition director of Cityscape India says, “At present these markets are feeling the effects of the global economic slowdown to varying degrees, with many international investors looking to repatriate their capital. However, most analysts believe that the markets will begin to bottom-out within 12 to18 months.”
“We may well witness some false dawns through 2009, but if market analysts are right, investors will be anticipating signs of growth in the first half of 2010, therefore some canny investors could well be back into the market by the end of 2009.” And so will be Cityscape India; the anticipated event was to take place from December 8 – 10 at the Bombay Exhibition Centre, Goregaon, and has now been rescheduled to be held on December 9-11, 2009 at the same venue.
Safety concerns emanating from the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai forced organisers to shelve Cityscape India 2008. “We felt that it would be irresponsible to organise an exhibition and conference given the security situation in Mumbai. The terrorists attacked just 12 days prior to the opening of Cityscape India and at that time we simply could not guarantee that our participants would be safe, which was our overriding concern.” Wood confirms.
— Soma Chaturvedi
