Data on real estate in India is difficult to get. But over the years a few specialised agencies which are collating this data have emerged. One of them is Prop Equity. As per their data, residential demand across key cities in India fell by 21% in 2014-2015. This was after residential demand had fallen by 22% in 2013-2014. (Sourced from a Citi Research's India Property Report).
A key aspect in financing real estate projects is launching new projects. The money collected from launching a new project is typically used by the builder or the real estate company to pay off their past debts or to complete a project which they had launched in the past.
To that extent Indian real estate companies like DLF, Purvankara, prestige Estates, Parsvnath, Omaxe, HDIL, Lodha, etc have been running a Ponzi scheme where money being collected by launching new projects was being used to build/complete old projects. A Ponzi scheme is an investment fraud where old investors are simply paid off by raising money from new investors. It keeps running till the money being brought in by the new investors is more than the money needed to pay off the old investors whose investments need to be redeemed.
