Realty: Bangalore IT sector in buying mode

It is mixed sentiments for some players in the real estate industry as IT sector in Bangalore trundles back on purchase mode but Hyderabad displays a cautious sentiment owing to the current political situation.

"The IT customer is back on track", Sunil Mantri, chairman of the Sunil Mantri Group, a leading real estate firm in the IT city, said. "The IT employee is back to buying properties", he said while stating that in its to be launched project on Sarjapur road, out of the 100 bookings 90 percent were IT employees.

"An IT employee who was worried about his job and cuts in salary and had gone slow on purchasing decisions, is now back trying to purchase", he said.

"The real estate sector is a very sensitive sector. Investments in these sectors are long term and not easy to exit unlike fixed deposits and stocks that can be exited from easily. Hence IT employees, who were worried about losing jobs and rollback of packages, were not in the purchasing mood right from end of 2008 to September 2009. "But post September the confidence has returned", he said.

"The last four months have been good. We have seen a 40 percent increase in purchase in the last four months. Out of which 50 percent would be from the IT sector", said Swaroop, senior vice president, Prestige. However, while the IT city of Bangalore has given the sector reasons to smile, Hyderabad was a cause for worry.