How to do a research of your local real estate market

Market research is almost as important as document verification while buying a property. Real estate market in the country is never be the same. Market forces are something that has to be considered to optimize your investment even if you buy the property for own use. For instance in the Indian market there has been many upheavals in the last three years. In whole of the country there was almost a lull in the realty sector with stocks piling up in many cities but the prices remained almost the same. The buyers according to the experts was expecting for some triggers for them to take the purchase decision. Recently after the new government came into power the market expectations got a churn with the RBI giving interest rate cuts. The realty sector is now expected to run on an upward trend.

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Although this is the picture of the overall real estate market situation of the country but every city is different with their differing characteristics because of the local factors which are unique for each city. Let’s take the example of Bengaluru and Mumbai which are exceptions with Bengaluru still holding the record sales growth among all the Indian cities. Thus a buyer needs to know the local market and again there are pockets in the same city which behave differently.  These pockets are known as micro-markets which are dependent on the areas near by and the development and infrastructure facilities in the vicinity.

So the question or rather the bottom line is that the market research is a must for buying of property in any place or location what so ever. This helps one to assess the current market prices and one can speculate whether one should buy now or later. Nevertheless the whole country’s situation has also to be assessed along with the factors considerable of the micro market. The reason is that if the prices tend to fall in Noida, it doesn’t mean that it will also fall in Mumbai or Bengaluru.

This makes the local market research more necessary and we discuss below the ways to know more about the local market.

Talk to a real estate agent:

One can ask one’s friend or neighbors to refer a good real estate agent who can detail the conditions of the local market. This is probably the fastest way to understand the conditions of the market as they have often done an in-depth market research and is quite aware about what is going to happen next.

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Look in the newspaper:

Most local newspapers have a devoted section for real estate and few newspapers publish special editions on fixed days of the week with few pages of real estate news, advertisements and articles. These newspapers also have their online presence where articles and views can also be found. One needs to see the classified advertisements to get a fair idea about the prices of a specific area.

Chambers of commerce and assessor’s office can help you:

Many local chambers of commerce have statistics and government bodies too have detailed market statistics and analysis for the public which may be available at their offices or published online. But one has to make sure that the prices are current and the data is properly updated.

Take the help of online portals:

Nowadays the real estate search engines and the aggregation sites have lot of tools available for the customers and viewers. They even have a comparative analysis of areas and statistics about the rise and fall of prices. This can give one a fair idea of what is going on and what can be expected next.

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An appraiser may be of immense help:

The value of real estate is assessed by the appraisers and valuers who are typically hired by the revenue office and the banks. This is the reason an appraiser is always updated on the current prices and the trends of the local market. You can email an appraiser or talk to him or her over the phone to know the current situation and prices and ask for his or her advice.

The truth is that even today or even earlier in this last three years when the condition of the market was not so good, houses and properties were still sold. If one is equipped with the proper local market information the sellers can position their properties and sell it and the buyers can buy the best of the property ensuring the best of return irrespective of market conditions.