Home to be a dream as costs building up

CHENNAI: S Sridharan, chairman of policy advocacy (urban development and housing), which is a part of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI), said that when comparing prices before and after the pandemic, prices of steel, cement, copper wires, and even aluminium have gone up by 30 per cent.

In December, steel was sold at Rs 44,000 per tonne and the rate has increased to Rs 88,000 per tonne. Meanwhile, cement price has increased to around Rs 450 per bag. The cement price was less than Rs 300 in December.

“Steel price is also up by 100 per cent. The rise started even before the fuel prices start going up. As fuel prices are increasing now, this will impact the construction industry. For the ongoing projects, builders would seek escalation cost,” he added.

Sridharan also forecasted that the selling price of constructed apartments would increase by 10-15 per cent, which will burden homebuyers. “This is an alarming situation. Increase in the cost of construction materials will create a ripple effect as many builders will be forced to stop construction resulting in job losses,” he pointed out.

P Manishankar, state president of the Federation of TN Flat and Housing Promoters Association, said that cement manufacturers sell a bag of cement at Rs 210-230 in Andhra Pradesh, but they sell cement for Rs 450 in Tamil Nadu.

“Small and medium builders will be affected the most. Builders will be forced to forego their profits in ongoing projects, while the cost of upcoming projects will increase exponentially,” he added.