Backlog of 2020 piles up on Noida & Greater Noida builders impacting deadlines

NOIDA: Year 2021 has started with double workload for the builders of Noida and Greater Noida, with the backlog of 2020 piling up on the deliverables of this year, which effectively means that deadlines for the current year too are likely to shift.

Apart from around 60,000 units from last year that are to be delivered, there would be an additional delay in 2021 for around 50,000 flats for which delivery may spill over to 2022.

According to Uttar Pradesh Real Estate Regulatory Authority (UP-Rera), there has already been a delay of over six to eight months in various projects, resulting in many buyers turning up for refunds. On the ground, even if the construction has started, the pace of work has hardly picked up. Noida and Greater Noida together would have around 4.5 lakh construction workers at multiple sites, only about 2 lakh have returned since Unlock.

“Builders have started work but the pace is slow and there is an obvious liquidity crunch, so if some 50-60k flats from Noida and Greater Noida were delayed in 2020 due to the Covid-induced lockdown, the effect could cast a shadow on the 2021 targets of many builders and it could push back this year’s timelines too,” Balvinder Kumar, member, UP-Rera, told TOI.

Builder bodies termed 2020 as “a year with unprecedented difficult situations for business and industry in general and the real estate sector in particular”. “UP’s real estate sector was badly affected due to the Covid-19 outbreak and the prolonged national lockdown. Exodus of migrant labourers due to the lockdown had also delayed project execution and impacted revenues,” RK Arora, president of Naredco (UP), said.

“Restrictions on travel, and transportation of material also contributed to the delay in project execution. Due to these unprecedented developments, completion timelines of 2020 had to be shifted to 2021. The main issue before developers is funds availability for construction. Due to the shifting of completion timelines, flow of funds has been disturbed,” he added.

However, ready-to-move properties have witnessed sales to a certain extent in 2020. Anarock property data reveals, as on 2020-end, there are over 56,620 unsold units in Noida and Greater Noida collectively. In 2019-end, it was 64,010 units. Of total new launches of 18,540 units in NCR in 2020, Noida and Greater Noida saw new supply of just 2,800 units (15% share).

Santhosh Kumar, vice chairman of Anarock property consultants, said, “Covid-19 impacted both new launches and housing sales in all the top cities, including NCR. However, data trends clearly indicate the caution which developers in Noida and Greater Noida applied in terms of new launches. These two markets previously had a lot of unsold stock and developers’ focus is now primarily on completing and selling previously launched projects.”